The Magpie (French: La Pie) is an oil-on-canvas landscape painting by the French Impressionist Claude Monet, created during the winter of 1868–1869 near the commune of Étretat in Normandy. Monet’s patron, Louis Joachim Gaudibert, helped arrange a house in Étretat for Monet’s girlfriend Camille Doncieux and their newborn son, allowing Monet to paint in relative comfort, surrounded by his family.
The Magpie is one of approximately 140 snowscapes produced by Monet. His first snowscape, A Cart on the Snowy Road at Honfleur, was painted sometime in either 1865 or 1867, followed by a notable series of snowscapes in the same year, beginning with the Road by Saint-Simeon Farm in Winter. The Magpie was completed in 1869 and is Monet’s largest winter painting. It was followed by The Red Cape (1869–1871), the only known winter painting featuring Camille Doncieux.
The canvas of The Magpie depicts a solitary black magpie perched on a gate formed in a wattle fence, as the light of the sun shines upon freshly fallen snow creating blue shadows. The painting features one of the first examples of Monet’s use of colored shadows, which would later become associated with the Impressionist movement. Monet and the Impressionists used colored shadows to represent the actual, changing conditions of light and shadow as seen in nature, challenging the academic convention of painting shadows black. This subjective theory of color perception was introduced to the art world through the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Michel Eugène Chevreul earlier in the century.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magpie_(Monet)
That’s beautiful
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I thought so too. 🙂
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It’s a beautiful piece! Thank you for sharing it Jim.
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thank you sweetie! 🙂
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Lovely painting, even though I don’t care for winter. Let’s think of it of the last few days of winter?
Leslie
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hmmmm. I think I have quite a ways to go before I can start thinking that around here.
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wishful thinking I suppose…
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wishful thinking is what gets one thru this time of year 🙂
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that and some seed catalogues….
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very true.
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😉
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Lovely post – you feel how thick the snow is!
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I like impressionist art. 🙂
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Mornin’, Jim
Did Claude Monet mention if that magpie was one of the famous cartoon comedy duo Heckle and Jeckle? I think it is and this painting should be retitled “Portrait of Famous Cartoon Comedian Heckle or Jeckle on Vacation in France!” I could never tell them apart so I guess they were twins and it doesn’t matter which one is in the painting. Jim, you should buy this painting to remind you of winter all year round! I have to say that I admire Claude Monet for taking the time to paint Heckle or Jeckle because most painters would have painted the more famous cartoon bird comedian, Woody Woodpecker. this painting makes Claude Monet almost as famous as Walter Lance who painted and invented the original Heckle and Jeckle and Woody Woodpecker!
🎨
^^🐵
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I never knew that! Iggy is so full of great information!
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LOL! Most people just think I’m full of it! 👍💩👍
^^🐵
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those that do can eat dirt
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