Carrieres-Saint-Denis 1872

Claude Monet created ‘Carrieres-Saint-Denis’ with oil paint on canvas, using tools that would have been familiar to artists for centuries: brushes, easels, and palettes. Yet the way he applied the paint was radical. Note how the buildings, the water, even the sky are rendered with broken touches, small dabs and strokes of pigment. This was a new way of seeing – and a new way of making a picture. Monet did not mix colors on his palette, as a traditional artist would. He put them directly on the canvas, allowing the viewer’s eye to perform the mixing. Look closely, and you can see how much labor was required. The facture – the evidence of the artist’s hand – is everywhere. The painting has a palpable sense of rhythm, almost like a woven textile. Monet challenged the traditional hierarchy of art. He elevates craft through the sheer volume of work, making labor itself a visible subject.