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How did Claude Monet’s late paintings influence Abstract Expressionist artists?
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Claude Monet
Self-Portrait with a Beret, oil on canvas by Claude Monet, 1886; in a private collection.
Claude Monet’s late paintings, particularly his monumental water lily series, significantly influenced Abstract Expressionist artists through their formal innovations and epic scale.1
Following a revival of interest in his work during the early 1950s, painters such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock drew inspiration from several key aspects of Monet's late style:
- Scale and Environment: Monet’s ambition to create giant, decorative schemes that would encircle the viewer introduced a new concept of embracing spatiality, which resonated with the immersive nature of Abstract Expressionist works.23
- Abstraction of Form: In his later years, Monet’s focus shifted toward the interplay of color, light, and reflection, often dissolving his subjects into abstract patterns. His thick, impasto brushwork and the energetic, swirling application of paint in works like The Japanese Footbridge directly anticipated the gestural techniques of the Abstract Expressionists.4
- Radicalism: The foundational radicalism of the Impressionist movement, which prioritized personal expression and independent modes of creation over traditional subject matter, provided a historical precedent for the avant-garde developments of Abstract Expressionism.5