Post by Chris Miller

This week for #GriefInArt we are discussing the sculpture installment "Camille on Her Deathbed" by Claude Monet, 1879. Reflecting on this painting, Monet said to a friend, "You cannot know, the obsession, the joy, the torment of my days…I was at the deathbed of a lady who had been, and still was very dear to me…I found myself staring at [her] tragic countenance, automatically trying to identify” things like “the proportions of light.” In many ways, this painting does not differ from Monet’s other impressionist landscapes; he has captured the fleeting nuances of color as they change with time in a way that’s reminiscent of his many seascapes, or his paintings of Notre Dame. Only this time, Camille was Claude’s landscape. What are you most drawn to in this painting? Which art piece should we explore next?