Maquis By Claude Monet. 3 riddles of the picture.

"Maquis", one of the most famous works of Claude Monet, I saw in the Museum D'orsay. However then I didn't consider it properly. As a fan of impressionism, my eyes just ran away from all the masterpieces that are in this Museum!

Later, of course, I already considered “Maquis” as it should. And I found that the Museum did not even notice some interesting details. If you look at the picture more closely, you probably have at least three questions:

Why are poppies so big?
Why did Monet depict two almost identical pairs of figures?
Why didn't the artist draw the sky in the picture?
I will answer these questions in order.

1. Why are poppies so big?

Maquis are depicted very large. Most of them-with the head of the child depicted. And if you take the poppies from the background and bring them closer to the figures in the foreground, they will be larger than the head of both the child and the woman depicted. Why is it so unrealistic?

In my opinion, the size of the poppies Monet deliberately increased: so he once again chose to convey a vivid visual impression, rather than the realism of the objects depicted.

Here, by the way, you can draw a parallel with his technique of images of water lilies in later works.

Apparently Macy's is only a harbinger of the dominance of abstraction in the late paintings of Monet.

1. Why are there two pairs of the same figures in the picture?

It turns out that for Monet it was also important to show the movement in his picture. He achieved this in an unusual way, depicting barely visible path on a hill among the flowers, as if trodden between two pairs of figures.

At the bottom of the hill with poppies shows the wife of Camille and son Jean. Camille is traditionally depicted with a green umbrella, as well as in the painting “Woman with an umbrella.”

Upstairs on the hill-another pair of women and children, for whom most likely also posed with his son Camille. That's why two couples are so alike.
This pair of figures on the hill is depicted exclusively for the visual effect of the movement to which Monet was so eager.

1. Why didn't Monet draw the sky?

Another remarkable moment in the picture: pay attention to how badly the sky is drawn up to the left bare areas of the canvas.
I can assume that the matter is in the technique of impressionism: Monet painted pictures in a few hours or even minutes to portray the play of light and color at a certain moment of the day. Therefore, there was not always enough time for all elements of the landscape. Working out all the details is a lot of Studio work, not outdoor work.

By the way, the painting “Maquis " was also exhibited at the first exhibition of the Impressionists in 1874