Portrait of Madame Claude Monet

Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet were great friends and their work in impressionist painting attracted and have continued to receive acclaim from far and wide. Portrait of Madame Claude Monet is a painting done by Renoir of Monet’s wife Camille Doncieux

Interestingly, Monet had also painted his wife a number of times. In the early years of the 1870s, Renoir and Monet worked closely and most of the paintings they did at the time had the same setting. They continued to advance the impressionist painting style at the time.

This was a time when this style of painting was not so well received. Portrait of Madame Claude Monet was painted by Renoir in the year 1874. Monet had also used Renoir's family member in some of his paintings. This painting is characteristic of heavy brushstrokes, an aspect that had not been well received by juries of exhibitions of the time.

Portrait of Madame Claude Monet was characteristic of all the techniques of an impressionist painting. It paid attention to electing feelings and interpretations than on the images.

The fact that Renoir and Monet would use the same characters in and setting in these paintings and each communicate different went ahead to affirm the very essence of an impressionist painting. The potarait depicts the image of Claude Monet’s wife sitting on a couch holding a book. It oozes serenity and appreciates the beauty of the woman that was Monet's wife.

Appreciation of female sensuality was one Renoir's trademarks of excellence in his paintings. Touches of color and balance between the light and contrast make the painting exquisite. Camille’s dress is amazing and blends well with the colors and contrast of the background and other accessories in the painting. There is a good balance between the concentration on the image that I s Camille and the background colors and contrast.

The impressionists essentially pushed on the boundaries of art from those that had gone before. Two of the more original, expressive artists who would have approved of the later developments that they brought about were El Greco and Eugene Delacroix. Romanticist Delacroix gifted us famous artworks such as Liberty Leading the People, Death of Sardanapalus and Massacre at Chios. El Greco would use an elongating style for his portraits which produced a dream-like finish. El Greco's best known paintings included View of Toledo, The Holy Trinity and Saint Martin and the Beggar.

In his impressionist works, Renoir worked with a couple of artists to advance the impressionist painting agenda. Together with Claude Monet, they worked with other modern painters of the time such as Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille. All these painters had been under the tutelage of Charles Gleyre in art school.

Charles Gleyre had a huge influence on their painting technique and could actually be credited as the person who gave birth to impressionist painting. Due to the consecutive rejection of their painting at the salon, a painting exhibition for young painters of the time, they together started an exhibition of their own. There other modern painters from whom Renoir drew inspiration for his paintings such as Camille Pissarro and Edouard Manet.

Renoir did a lot of paintings both classical and impressionist. His impressionist paintings are more popular and have been received with acclaim by many. Among his popular paintings include:

The Blue Lady - Also known as La Parisienne, was done by Renoir in the year 1874. The painting features the image of a popular model of the time known as Henriette Henriot. She was also an actress at the Odeon theater. It is one of Renoir's most acclaimed pieces though it had been described by a jury as a failure in its first exhibition.