The exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is the first presenting Monet's drawings and pastels, being an interesting and rich exploration of the role of draughtsmanship in the artist's long and prestigious career. Despite the popular misconception that Monet painted from nature, catching the "impressions" on canvas, the exhibition shows that the artist made a great number of preparatory studies, ranging from sketches to drawings and pastels.
The curators have chosen around 80 works, many of these on loan from museum, galleries and private collections, most of these exhibited for the first time. From the first landscape studies and even caricatures - unknown to most of Monet's admirers - the exhibition passes to the development of his draftsman skills. Visitors have the chance of discovering how his style evolved and matured and how he used preparatory drawings for his larger, more ambitious works such as the famous Dejeuner sur l'herbe or his Normandy landscapes.
A distinct section of the show is dedicated to the drawings that Monet made after his most famous paintings, to be used as reproduction in litography for famous art journals of his time, such as L'Art dans les Deux Mondes. Familiarised with the techniques of printmaking, the artist did his best to translate his detailed works in a medium suitable for mass reproduction.
June 2007
