Image Essay 1

In Claude Monet’s The River, Bennecourt, the area of focus is the woman over looking the river. The viewer’s eye moves from the area of focus (woman) to the trees and then to the houses in the background. Monet’s asymmetrical arrangement of this composition keeps the viewer’s eye going around the painting and does not let the eye wander off. This painting is a perfect example of the figure-ground relationship. The woman is the figure and the river and houses are the ground. The viewer would notice the woman first before the houses and the river in the background. The trees and grass appear dominant because they extend past the edges of the painting. The woman and the boat are medium masses so they are subordinate and the houses are accentual in size because they appear very small. The water to the right of the painting is the dominant negative space while the area between the two trees is accentual negative space. In this impressionistic painting, Monet experiments with the lighting so that the viewer notices the reflections made on the water.