Saint Lazare Station which was painted in 1877 by Monet who is one of the most important painters in France is a depiction of Paris’s train station, showing an actual impression of daily life scene. Monet has been longing for the effect that the light goes through and evaporates the glass ceiling and the shape of automobiles and carriages from the chaos. Monet firmly believes that the magic effect of light and air is the most important thing. He cleverly balances the tones and colors in the painting which outstandingly performs the power, space, contrast and movement.

In 1883, Claude Monet settled in Virginie and built a small garden there for painting. He planted a lot of lotus in the pool, which made him find the themes to achieve his goal: to draw some hard bodies, water and air and try to make them gather together. The painting showed Monet’s desire of complex blending without sad mood. Each person studying Monet’s creative activities development will find if the initial fate contributed to the development trend of Monet, so then he created his fate later. The reason why Monet becomes the founder of impressionism style and is recognized “first class” by his friends is due to his unshakable and strong will. As is known to all, impressionism means the revolution of feeling and observation ways, which not only has changed painting, sculpture, music, and the literature. As of today, it still has not lost its important influence and has been changing us.

In the work Boy In A Red Vest, the boy’s image fills the whole painting. His arched body constitutes a major whole composition. This image is firmly located in a compact space structure –the left is limited by the curtain lines, the top is framed by the horizontal lines on the wall and the right is limited by the deep colors of the triangle. The curved arms and curved body are coordinated. The whole painting’s shape, color, point, line and other factors are made according to the rational order some. In order to obtain the safety and harmony of the painting’s structure, the painter deliberately changes the image and proportion of objects.
color block arrangement have great originality. Even the child’s forehead’s white flash is not casually created; that piece of square paper under the juvenile’s left elbow plays a decisive role in the painting. If we will block it, the painting will lose balance and luster.

Paul Cezanne once took an Italian youth named Lucid Michelangelo as a model and made different oil portraits from four angles. And this painting takes three fourths sides, which is one of the most successful and most famous pieces. In this painting, the character’s head leans on the bending of the left arm, and right arm is free to hang on the legs. Such posture is quite similar to the human postures in German painter Durer’s print Melancholy. Perhaps, this posture itself is with some sad means. This posture has appeared in Cezanne’s later other portraits, such as Smoking Man, Italian Girl, etc.

Only to see Claude Monet in Giverny can you know who he is, his personality, his interest in life and his inner world,” His friend and biographer, Gustav wrote. Monet’s family moved to Giverny in 1883, which was a village between Paris and Rouen. He then set about building a garden. For this garden, he himself commented: “This is my best work.” This place was his final shelter where he lived for 43 years.

Water Lilies is a series of oil paintings with a number of about 250. Most of them were completed when Monet was in Giverny garden. The paintings depicted Monet’s flower garden in different scenes. It is hard to believe that when many of the works were painted Claude Monet was suffering from cataracts. In his garden, he made different attempts to arrange the light effect. Therefore, Water Lilies series appeared in a various postures.

The paintings Water Lilies, in the contrast of the colors of the bright yellow, orange and vermilion, were like a mass of burning fire. The strong whirlwind-like strokes strengthened the effect of the flame distortedly rising among the lily clouds, showing a visual world of dream. Here, there was no water lily but a dark round plate, which highlighted by bright strokes. There was no mark of space but light and color captured by the brush.

The oil paintings were shown at museums although the world. During the 1920s, France set about building two oval rooms for eight water lily murals by Claude Monet. And people got the chance to
on many of the following generations of artists.

Claude Monet created the world-famous Impression Sunrise. This painting delineated a scene that the sun rising through the mist at the harbor of Le Havre. The loose brush strokes depicted a picture in the mist in the morning, a variety of colors made the water brilliant. Those boats above the water could be seen clearly. It was the visual scene that the painter enjoyed when the sun rising with light and colors in harbor city of France.

From this painting, we might think that the sun was the focus of the light as the brightest point in the painting. However, we would find it not accurately right because the sky was as bright as the sun if we looked at this painting more carefully. Let’s imagine if we make a black and white copy of Impression: Sunrise, we will be surprised to seen that the sun is almost gone. Yes, it is disappeared. And what have happened? To explain this phenomenon in a professional way is that “the older part of the visual cortex in the brain registers only luminance and not color, so that the sun in the painting would be invisible to it.”

This painting broke the bondage of traditional painting, a critic quoted from the title of this painting to ridicule the young innovative painters that Claude Monet represented as Impressionism, This school of painting derived its name from it. And this painting was shown in the first joint exhibition of Impressionist artists in 1874, becoming the most typical works of Monet. The name impressionist also had its story. Shortly after the exhibition of 1874, a critic whose name was Louis Leroy posted a review in the newspaper with the title of “The Exhibition of the Impressionists”.

In the mind of Monet, landscape was nothing but an instantaneous impression. He just painted what he had seen from his window in Le Havre: the sun in the mist and some boats floating on the sea. He searched a proper title for this picture, and then he found it. He made Impression as the title but not Le Havre. Impression was telling people that we have some impression in it when we are impressed through its free and ease techniques.

The Mona Lisa is undoubtedly the most famous, researched, debated and talked about painting of all time. It is a half-length portrait of a woman painted in three poplar boards. The creator of painting Leonardo da Vinci also remains an amazing person, his genius on art and science is perhaps beyond other figures in his time.

For years, questions and debates on Mona Lisa never ends. Who is this woman? Although some evidence proved that the woman was Lisa Gherardini, new gossips and reports came out continually. The identification of the woman has kept scholars busy for centuries.

However the main reason that makes the Mona Lisa so precious and famous is the painting itself. Leonardo used his new experiment esfumato technique to place the woman simply and calmly in the space of the painting. Leonardo softened all sharp outlines to give the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality. The woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. When looking at Mona Lisa from the left side, she looks taller than from the right. Also the Mona Lisa’s smile is mysterious. Is she happy or sad?

Mona Lisa has no clearly visible eyebrows. In 2007, researchers announced that Mona Lisa was originally painted with eyebrows, but they had gradually disappeared due to passed times and overcleaning.

From the day it came out, the Mona Lisa has created mystery and questions which is exactly a great artwork should be. This everlasting masterpiece is still breathtaking in the Musee du Louvre.

Psyche Opening the Golden Box is one of representative mythological paintings made by British famous painter John William Waterhouse in 1903.

The painting depicts the moment a blonde woman with pink dress named Psyche sitting in the dirty rock who eyeing in serious and devout to the golden box she holds and a light flow of green gas running out from a little gap which opened by that woman. In this painting, Waterhouse used warm watercolors to create the mysterious surroundings, such as the medium brown trees, invisible green lake and the pink flowers.

The theme of this painting comes from the allegory love story of Psyche (the beauty human princess) and Cupid (the goddess of love). It describes Psyche finally went through all kinds of ordeals appointed by Venus and got a golden box from Queen Proserpine after Cupid’s leaving. When brought the golden box back to Venus for proving her sincerely love to Cupid, she couldn’t stand against curiosity to open the box that caused her possessed by the goddess of death and sleep. That part was exactly what Waterhouse showed the viewers in this painting.

Psyche Opening the Golden Box reminds me think of another Waterhouse mythological painting-Pandora (1896) which depicts a mythological woman full of curiosity opening a golden box also. There are two common points of these two paintings:

1. Waterhouse depicted the similar countenances (curiosity, discreet) from side face and half-naked their shoulder.
2. Using some warm watercolors to describe and create similar surroundings (green waters and brown trees).