Guest Blogger: Full of Light

(A narration of Monet's "Women in the Garden", written by Aravis)

In Monet’s painting “Women in the Garden”, one woman sits underneath a tree reading a book, another stands slightly behind the tree, and a third walks along the path. The model for all three women was his wife, who posed in each different position so that her husband could paint it. On the face of the woman beneath the tree, Monet tried a new technique – he painted it slightly paler than ordinary to indicate the woman’s skirt reflecting light upwards. In the bottom left corner there are lilies and other flowers, leading up to the sitting woman. The tree is dark and shadowy and so is the woman standing behind it, providing an interesting comparison to the bright, hard shape of the woman walking on the garden path between two rows of black-green conifers. The women in their white dresses, the white lilies in the corner, the light-brown sandy gravel of the path and the pale sky with its white clouds contrast sharply with the almost navy-green trees and shadowy grass. But even the trees have slim white reflective glints on their glossy leaves. The painting is full of light.