The Grand Canal and Santa Maria della Salute 1908

Claude Monet painted this scene of the Grand Canal and Santa Maria della Salute, likely in oil on canvas. You can almost feel Monet squinting in the bright Venetian light, trying to capture the shimmering water and the hazy domes in front of him. Look at the water. See how he’s used these short, choppy strokes of blue and gold? It's like he's trying to catch the light dancing on the waves. I imagine him standing there, battling the sun and the reflections, trying to pin down something so fleeting. There is a real physicality to this painting, a sense of him wrestling with the materiality of paint. It reminds me of Turner, but somehow more intimate. This is Monet, not just recording what he sees, but trying to feel it, trying to share that feeling with us. And isn't that what painting is all about? A conversation across time, each artist building on the work of those who came before, adding their own brushstroke to the ongoing story of art.