Etretat: L’Aiguille and the Porte d’ave Vs. Charing Cross Bridge

Etretat: L’Aiguille and the Porte d’ave - Claude Monet

Monet painted another painting of a similar view, named Etretat: L’Aiguille and the Porte d’ave. It is also an impressionistic piece of a view of a body of water with two rocks in the middle. Although the subject of both pieces is the same, the Etretat: L’Aiguille and the Porte d’ave is painted with a different set of colours. Monet used fewer colours. He stuck with basically shades blues and greens and less pinks and oranges. His strokes are more visible in this painting than Charing Cross Bridge, especially at the bottom where he dabbed bits of dark blue in various places. There is also white painted in the sky. From the colours, it is obvious that both paintings were painted from a different time of day. Etretat: L’Aiguille and the Porte d’ave seems to be painted in the afternoon on a summer day. The lines in this painting are not as horizontal as the other one. They vary from dabs to vertical strokes. Monet also used actual lines to show the texture of the rocks, unlike how he only used dabs to show the texture of the bridge. Although the subject of both paintings are very similar to each other, both with bodies of water, the colour and line usage are very different which creates a totally different effect for each painting.

Claude Monet, the Impressionist

The view that Monet painted for the Charing Cross Bridge only lasted for a few minutes, but yet he managed to paint it with the colours and lighting that allows the viewer to know when it was painted. According to the yellowy and pink colours in the sky and the stillness of the air, it seems like it was painted in the early morning of a summer day. His strokes barley shows in this impressionistic piece, even though in most impressionist paintings the brush strokes are very visible.

Painting Balance

In Charing Cross Bridge by Claude Monet, the painting is well balanced because the bridge acts as a horizon line. The viewer is able to focus easier by having a bridge that helps direct their attention right to the middle of the painting. The bridge also balances out the sky and the water, each part equally as big. The buildings in the back are painted smaller which allows parts of the sky show in the background as well.

If the buildings were painted bigger it would not have appeared as balanced since the buildings would also create a focus that would confuse the viewer from the main focus of the bridge. The shadows are all in the correct spots, all leaning towards the left side since the sun is shinning from the right side out towards the left side of the painting.

Brush strokes in Charing Cross Bridge

The lines in Charing Cross Bridge runs both horizontally and vertically. The brush strokes on the part of the bridge where people cross runs horizontally, with a few occasional dabs of paint to show the strong structure. The strokes for the part that holds the bridge up runs vertically and continues on as the shadows reflects in the water.

Although there are brush strokes that run a certain direction, there are no actual hard lines that show the viewer the direction that the strokes are going. The strokes for the water are done horizontally, which helps capture the direction in which the water flows. For the parliament buildings, the strokes move vertically downwards. Once again there are no actual lines that outline the buildings.

The brush strokes in the sky do not go in a particular direction. Instead, they are dabs that fill the top half of the painting up. The dabs make it seem like it is a calm and still day. If the strokes all went in one direction then it may seem like it is a very windy day. The rhythm is consistent in the painting as all the lines run in the same direction for each part in the painting. For example, all the lines in the buildings at the back run vertically and all the lines on the bridge runs horizontally.

Colour description of Charing Cross Bridge

The colours in Charing Cross Bridge are amazing. It ranges from pink to orange, to turquoise. At the top of the painting, the sky is painted with a base colour of different shades of yellow, and with orange that highlights the brighter areas in the middle of the sky. The sky is a lot brighter in the middle than at the sides of the painting. Pink is also found in the sky, which is most likely the reflection from the sun located at the top right hand corner of the painting. The sun is coloured in a darker shade of yellow and pink.

Below the sun are the parliament buildings. They are painted in shades of blue-green. They appear to be painted darker probably because they are against a very bright yellow sky. There are other buildings beside the taller parliament buildings that goes across the painting in a line that are also painted in shades of blue – green but they are barley visible as they are a lot lighter in colour than the parliament buildings.

Below the faint row of parliament buildings in the background is the bridge. It is painted in shades of blue-green and some highlights of yellow. The turquoise-blue colours are used as shadows for the bridge. The yellow and dark shades of yellow-white are highlights for the bridge. The water below the bridge is coloured from the reflection of the sky and the bridge. There are yellowy-pink shades with darker blue-green shades as the shadow of the bridge. The water is light on the right side of the painting from the reflection of the sun. There is also a pile of lightly painted rocks at the bottom right hand corner of the painting. It is painted in shades of pink and blue and dabs of green. The golden frame used in the gallery for this painting matches the painting’s colour scheme as it is also bright and in a yellowy shade.

There is hardly any contrast in the painting as all the colours are almost the same brightness. The blue-green is a bit contrasting against the yellowy background but it does not stand out since the yellowy colour also fades into the bridge, acting as highlights for the bridge. The yellowy shades on the bridge are a bit darker than the yellow in the sky so it does not appear as a bad combination of colours when painted with the blue-green.

Charing Cross Bridge - Caude Monet

Charing Cross Bridge - Claude Monet
Oil on Canvas
25 x 36 in


Claude Monet’s Charing Cross Bridge is an oil on canvas painting made in 1902 that can be found in the Art Gallery of Ontario along with other paintings from the same time period. This painting is normal sized, a rectangle that is 25 x 36 inches big. It appears to be glazed and a little shiny. The surface appears to be smooth, but bumpy at spots where there are occasional ticker dabs of paint. Charing Cross Bridge was painted using an impressionistic style.

Monet painted it according to the light source and the colours he saw. He painted this same view thirty-five times, each time with a different weather condition, time of day and season. It does not seem to be painted in the countryside, but rather in an urban area. There is a lot of fog in the painting so the viewer cannot see the details of the painting clearly. The foreground consists of a bridge that goes across the bottom half of the painting with a slight angle that makes it seem like the left side is further away than the right. There is also a row of buildings in the background but are hardly visible. Only the two taller parliament buildings at the right-hand side of the painting is painted darker and are more visible. The bridge is already very faint from the surrounding fog, but the buildings are even more faint. The bridge is already very faint from the surrounding fog, but the buildings are more faint than the bridge. Behind the buildings is the sky, with a sun on the right hand corner. At the bottom of the painting, it is filled with water that travels through the bridge and into the background where the buildings are located. The bridge appears to be bigger because it is closer to the viewer than the buildings in the background.

Colour description of Tangiers, The Beach

Even from a distance, the aqua colour of the ocean seems to jump out across the room. It is the most attention grabbing. The white and darker blue dabs in the water creates motion and shows a bit of waves. The lines are very smooth and rhythmic but the viewer is able to see that the water is flowing very softly and subtle.

As the waves roll towards the shore, it changes from its aqua green to a more intense white. The sand consists of darker browns and lighter browns, with the darker to show the wet sand while the lighter brown revels the shade of the dry sand. The peachy and white tones seem to be the reflection of the sunlight on tiny pebbles. The dabs of grays, blues and purple shows the shadows of what might be the uneven ground of the beach. His choice of colours of the sand matches the aqua water perfectly. It flows smoothly and does not cause irritation for the eye.

The two subjects on the right consist of fairly neutral tones, other than the bright red hat the man wears on his head. Surprisingly, the bright red is barley noticeable and does not take the viewer's attention away from any other part of the painting. Looking down the figure, it is sporting a fairly neutral blue jacket with bright patches which shows it might be a rain jacket or a windbreaker. At man's feet he wears bright yellow shoes but it also does not take away from the rest of the painting, probably because it is against a background of almost the same shade (the sand).

The flat mountains in the distance consist of a neutral tone like the sand. There are dabs of purples. grays and blues as the shadows and white and pink shades for the brighter areas. Overall, the mountains are painted more smooth compared to the sand because it is further away and therefore looses more details, when in fact if they were both of the same distance the mountains would have a rougher edge than the sand. The sky consists of two main shades, whit and light blue.

The water seems to be a reflection from the blue sky because the sky has a very rich sens of colour, so it is a good idea that the artist chose to cover more than half of the sky with white clouds, or else the strong blue will overpower the aqua water, so they will not have to fight for attention.

This particular painting overall is quite smooth with a few different textures for the different types of objects in this environment. There are dabs to show movement and texture, but not too much so that it emphasis on colour too much. This painting definitely depicts a great example of a beach.

Tangiers, The Beach by James Morrice

When the viewer first sets eye on Tangiers, The Beach, the eye will go straight to the beautifully painted aqua coloured ocean. It's unique colour not only attracts its viewers but it also pulls the eye towards the smooth flowing mass of water, not allowing the eye to leave. There is hardly any flow or movement that leads the eye to another part of the painting so the only choice the eye has is to continue to allow the greenness to captivate it.

The eye then slowly travels down towards the lower part of the water until it finally hits some waves that washes up along the shore. The difference in motion directs the eye to a person and his donkey on the right side of the painting. The eye rests on the person's laid back posture, unable to depict if it is a man or woman from their big oversized jacket with long bare legs. From what the figure is wearing, it seems to be a nice sunny day but not hot enough to be rid of the jacket. The eye then zooms in and travels up the figure and takes interest in the tiny red hat that barley fits on the person's head. This further suggests that it is more likely to be a man than a woman as women would have wore big hats filled with flowers or no hat at all if they were to walk along the beach like so. Traveling down the man's face, the eye notices that there are hardly any facial features, let alone any expressions. The man's companion is strangely a donkey but is treated like a dog as it is let loose and free as the eye catches sight of what seems like a rope for the donkey.

The donkey is not restrained by his owner but yet it chooses to stay faithful by its owner side. The eye then takes a step back and views the entire painting because the man and his donkey does not lead the eye to anywhere else. The eye is stuck once more. After zooming back out, the eye then notices sand at the bottom of the painting, where the waves wash up to the shore. The eye scans the surface of the sand and notes its rough and textural surface while noticing the different markings in the sand which shows the hard parts of the sand compared to the soft parts, and the dry compared to the wet, and the random rock pieces that happen to be lying there. There is nothing left at the bottom of the painting so the eye moves back up the sand, past the waves, only to be captivated by the aqua ocean again.

After pausing for a bit the eye continues to move upwards until it catches sight of the smooth and distant mountains in the center. The eye travels horizontally along the flat mountains before moving upwards to the top part of the mountain to be greeted by a very abstract shape. The soft and blurry blue and white spots creates such confusing that the eye has to take a step back once more to view the painting as whole. Once the eye zooms out, it realizes that the abstract shape is actually the sky filled with big and strong clouds.

James Morrice

On the second floor of the Art Gallery of Ontario is a room hung with paintings painted by James Morrice, a famous Canadian landscape painter. The moment one walks in to the room, it would be very obvious that it holds a different atmosphere from the rest of the rooms in the Canadian art section. What is most noticeable are the similarities in the scenery and subjects of the paintings. The entire room filled with scenery of the beach and horses makes the viewer wonder if they are all from the same series. Its starts off with Tangiers, The Beach on the first wall while other similar paintings, Lea Ladoret at the Beach appear on one wall, The Surf, Dieppe, on another while Beach at Mers hung on the last wall – each with alike backgrounds but with completely different atmospheres. The room displayed Morrice’s paintings so that they change from one season to another. It creates a dynamic effect so that if you were to spin around slowly in the center of the room you would appear to be traveling forward in time. At one second, you would see scenes of summer with bright sunny views of the beach. The next second you would see rain dripping on people with windy skies and leaves blowing everywhere, and before you know it there is snow on the ground.


James Wilson Morrice - Beach at Mers, 1898
oil on canvas
60.3 x 81.6 cm