Monet’s Garden

 
Who doesn’t love the impressionistic era of painting heralded by Claude Monet? 
 
A little backstory here. During the 1860’s in France, artists would submit works to the Academie Salon de Paris jury. The Academie was the French painting standard of the art world at the time with traditional content and style, ie historical subjects, religious themes, and portraits. Landscapes and still life subject matter were not in favour.
 
So four artists--Claude Monet, Pierre August Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille found out that they loved painting outside, directly placing the colors on canvas to capture the lighting at the moment. 
 
Then, they submitted their painting to the Salon to be juried. The Salon routinely rejected approximately half of the entries. So in 1863, after Napoleon III saw the rejected works of art, he declared that the public should be allowed to judge the art for themselves. The Salon des Refuses (Salon of the Refused) was organized. In the first exhibition, more visitors came to view the works than to the regular Salon!
 
So, as you can see, in the beginning, Monet and his contemporaries were not often loved as the works are now.
 
Now in homage to Claude Monet and his love of small pure colors, wrap my interpretation of Monet’s beloved water lily gardens around your neck!
 
Information found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_(Paris)