Viva La Vida: Norton Simon Museum Visit

The sculpture garden @ the Norton Simon Museum

On Friday, February 4th I visited the Norton Simon Museum with my little brother. I had visited this museum before and was very excited to bring my brother for his first art museum experience. Since it was a Friday I figured there would not be many people at the museum, but I was wrong! the museum was busy with visitors. One of the first things I wanted to do was ask where the Claude Monet paintings were. Since he is a personal favorite of mine. I was excited to learn that they had 3 of his paintings on display at the museum. So after showing my school id at the entrance I made my way to the 19th - 20th century paintings area of the museum.

The first Monet I saw was this beautiful oil on canvas painting called The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil (1881). I have always loved Monet paintings because they are for the most part beautifully dream like. I love the mix of colors and how even tho they are not pastel, they give the impression that they are. The broad strokes and mixture of blues, creams, and violets create a beautiful sky and garden. The small hints of red and yellow accentuate the fact that this garden is in full bloom. Monet painted this after recovering from some personal trauma. First, one of his patrons was having difficult economic problems and had to sell 16 of Monet's paintings at exceptionally low prices. This significantly brought down the value of his work. Secondly, Monet's wife Camille passed way after giving birth to her second son. Due to the brightness and happy style of painting it is easy to tell that Monet had already recovered from these sad times in his life.

Adjacent to the room where I found the Monet, I came across this brilliant Edgar Degas painting. My sister had asked me to keep an eye open for a painting by this artist because it is one of her favorites. This oil on canvas painting tittled Dancers in the Rotunda at the Paris Opera (1875-78, and 1894) depicts Degas' most common painting subjects, dance and movement. This painting of a classroom at the Palais Garnier is actually still in use today, and is distinguishable by it's oval windows. If you look closely you can see that Degas changed the original position of the ballerinas arms and legs pictured on the left. But instead of painting over them to correct it , he outlined the limbs with black and brown paint. This painting is very beautiful and delicate in my opinion the brush strokes look soft and I love how the ballerinas in the back have no sharp edges or out lines. This draws more attention to the ballerinas in the foreground of the painting. One of which actually has the mark of Degas' fingerprints. Another thing I liked about this was the light coming through the window. Even though the back round colors of the painting are dark. The sunshine coming in the window was a nice touch to add some color to the painting.

I decided to compare and contrast the 2 paintings above because even though that are both painted by impressionist artists they are different in theme. Both Monet and Degas are known for sticking to a theme and creating many pieces from that inspiration. Monet is famous for his beautiful series of water lily paintings that are bright with bloomed flowers and blue waters. While Degas is known for painting dancers, most all his paintings are influenced by ballerinas. And he makes sure to make them the center of attention in the paintings. The ballerinas are usually in a dark colored back round, but are mostly pictured wearing pink, violet, or white outfits. Looking at the paintings up close it seems to me both artists used soft strokes on the canvas to make the paintings look dream like or blurry. I'ts amazing to me how up close both these paintings look kind of messy but once you step back and admire the work as a whole, it creates a beautiful painting.

After admiring some of the Van Gogh and Picasso paintings that were on display I found another Monet. I can honestly say that the beauty of the sky in this painting is so realistic, you would think it was a photograph. I saw this from across the room not knowing it was a Monet but was pleasantly surprised when I learned it was one of his works. This oil on canvas titled Mouth of the Seine, Honfleur (1865) was Monets debut at the Salon Paris and was the beginning of his impressionism work. The painting depicts the French port along the English channel. Aside from the beautiful sky in this painting I like the contrast of the blue sky with the murky and muddy looking water. The use of brown tones for the water make the blue sky pop out even more.

I was so happy to share this experience with my brother and get his input on what paintings he liked . He quickly became a Picasso fan and was glad to see they had quite a few of his works at the museum. We both took lots of pictures and were glad the staff was friendly and didn't mind us getting close to the art. There was quite a lot of security at the museum, more than I would of though. but like I said they were very nice, even when I loudly told my brother from across the room "OMG there's another Monet"!! hahaha I will definitely make a return trip to this museum.

Here are some more pictures from our trip: