New Ways of Seeing an Old Cathedral
The Rouen Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral in the city of Rouen, France. It was built in 1202. It was the tallest and one of the oldest buildings in Rouen. Imagine what the people of Rouen thought when they saw the massive gray stone cathedral painted in sparkling orange, pink, yellow, green, and blue slashes! That is how the cathedral looked to Monet as he painted it in the early morning sunlight. He enjoyed the experience of using these bold colors so much that he also painted the cathedral at sunset and mid- day in full sun. He saw new colors reflected on the building and in the sky each time he painted it. Monet chose a familiar object that people had known since their childhoods. He then painted it in a way that no one had imagined. From that point on the people of Rouen would look at their old cathedral in a new way!
Can you find three figures in the painting above?
Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral; 1894. Below right: The Façade, Morning Mist , 1894. Below left: Rouen Cathedral, Symphony in Grey and Rose , 1892. Photos Credit: Dover Publications Inc.
When you look at the size of the figures does the entrance to the cathedral seem very big or very small? Describe what colors you see in these three paintings from Monet’s Rouen Cat hedral series.
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