Impression: Sunrise

Intention

I intended to reproduce my experience of watching Claude Monet's Impression:Sunrise using a digital form.

About the artist: Claude Monet was the founder of Impressionism and held the first Impressionist Exhibition. The term Impressionism directly came from one of his most notable works, Impression:Sunrise. He highly focused on the effects of light on the local colour of objects, and the effects of the juxtaposition of colours with each other.

Work

Impression, Sunrise depicts the port of Le Havre, which was Monet's hometown. It was created after the French-Prussian War, when Monet finally returned home from England. The hazy scene of Impression, Sunrise is generally dim in color, presenting a sense of serenity. The only distictive brightness on the canvas was the rising sun, which, according to many critics, implies the revitalization of post-war France, giving the audience of a sense of hope. 

Approach

I selected a picture I took of Forbidden City, Beijing, and modified it to the style of Impression, Sunrise using a phone app named Malevich. My reproduction of Impression, Sunrise mainly presented my feeling and imagination toward this painting rather than trying to redraw the painting. The first look on Impression reminds me my hometown, and the scene of sunrise I have witnessed everyday when I went jogging every morning. When I was jogging I was also appreciating the scenery surrounding me. The sun emerging from the cloud and its reflection on the surface of the Lake shed the ground with dim light, which made me warm and hopeful for the start of a brand new day. 

Product

I used a photo editor called Malevich to create the Impressionism effect on the photo I took on a casual morning when I was jogging around the Forbidden City. The digital reproduction depicts my feeling when looking at Impression: Sunrise while including the similar subject and scene of the original work.

Reflection

I think I captured the style and theme of Impression: Sunrise in my digital reproduction. If I'm going to redo it, I will still choose this static form. Rather than creating a moving scene showing the whole process of sunrise, I believe that the static form preserves the style and atmosphere of the original work best, also leaves more room for imagination.