Paysage of Norway, the Blue Houses 1895

Claude Monet created this untitled ‘Paysage of Norway, the Blue Houses’ with oil on canvas. We see a stark, wintry scene dominated by horizontal bands of colour. The chromatic scale progresses from the pastel shades of green, yellow, and pink in the sky and foreground, to the cool blues of the distant hills. Monet's focus on the visual experience of light is evident in the way he captures the fleeting atmospheric effects of the Norwegian landscape. The blue houses appear as dark, almost abstract shapes, anchored in the snow. This abstraction reflects a broader artistic shift toward prioritizing the formal elements of painting over realistic representation. The composition, with its simplified forms and emphasis on surface texture, challenges traditional notions of depth and perspective. Monet’s interest lies not in creating an illusion of reality but in exploring the materiality of paint itself. This work, therefore, operates as part of a larger cultural move towards redefining art's purpose, from representation to an exploration of perception and form.