The sun above all

ABOVEALLTHESUN

Claude Monet’s masterpiece, which gave its name to the Impressionist movement, has inspired an exhibition dedicated to depictions of the star over the centuries

by Micaela Zucconi

© Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Photo: Jürgen Karpinski

Opening, Johann Melchior Dinglinger, “Sun jewellery”, 1709, body in engraved, gilded, pierced and stamped copper, inlaid with crystal gemstones. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden. To side, Claude Monet, “Impression, soleil levant”, 1872, Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet. Bottom, left, Joachim von Sandrart , “Allegory of Day”, 1643, Schleissheim, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Staatsgalerie im Neuen. Right, Carlo Saraceni, “The Flight of Icarus”, oil on copper. Naples, Museonazionale di Capodimonte

It’s been 150 years since Claude Monet (Paris 1840 - Giverny 1926) painted Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise) on 13 November 1872. His subject was a dawn scene, rendered hazy by mist, in the port of Le Havre, Normandy, the city where he spent his childhood and youth, and the place where he began to paint. The work was displayed for the first time in Paris in 1874, in the rooms set aside for the famous photographer Nadar, together with works by other artists who shared Monet’s innovative approach, far removed from the formalism espoused by the Academy. Thirty painters in all, including Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Eugène Boudin, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-August Renoir and Alfred Sisley. It wasn’t a success. Monet’s work attracted particularly

Monet: ©Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris/Studio Christian Baraja SLB

Von Sandrart: © Schleissheim, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Staatsgalerie im Neuen

Saraceni: © Courtesy of Ministry of Culture – Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte

fierce censure from critic Louis Leroy, who made a mocking play on the painting’s title. Undaunted, Monet and his friends’ response to Leroy was to adopt his sneering description, calling themselves the Impressionists. The Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, where the work is kept, is celebrating the anniversary of the centrepiece of its collection with an original exhibition entitled Facing the Sun. The Celestial Body in the Arts (open until 29 January 2023. www. marmottan.fr). The show presents over 100 works from various periods and provenances with drawings, paintings, photos and even scientific instruments from the Paris Observatory, tracing the story of the depiction and interpretation of the sun from ancient to modern times, hand in hand with the evolution of landscape and atmospheric painting. This begins with the depiction of the sun and its perception as a divine being in Egypt of the Pharaohs, ancient Greece and Rome, continuing with interpretations seen through the lens of mediaeval theology and Renaissance ideas, as well as such 17th century works as the Downfall of Icarus by Italian Carlo Saraceni (Capodimonte Museum, Naples). Such mythological themes were also favourites of monarchs like Louis XIV, who displayed in his apartments the painting Le lever du Soleil by Charles de La Fosse (Musée des Beaux-arts, Rouen). In 1667 the French sovereign, known as the Sun King because everything

revolved around him, founded the Observatoire Astronomique de Paris. Nature caressed by the light of dawn and sunset owed much to the heliocentric theory proposed by the mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in the early 16th century. His ideas only gained widespread acceptance as much as two centuries later. Works in the exhibition such as those by Peter-Paul Rubens (15771640) and Claude Gellée (1600-1682) also played an important role, as did the landscapes of William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Gustave Courbet and Eugène Boudin. Boudin was a friend of Monet and master – if not the true originator – of the painting “en plein air” practised by the Impressionists. The show guides visitors through the successive developments - a reflection of astro-physical research during the period 1880-1914, when the sun became a subject in itself, interpreted according to distinct visions of the different artistic movements, the naturalism of Nordic painters like Laurits Tuxen and Anna Ancher, the symbolism of Felix Vallotton and the expressionism of Otto Dix and Edvard Munch. After 1920 the greatest influence was Einstein’s revolutionary theory of relativity, which posited a constantly-expanding universe, ideas reflected in artistic works. Then we come to Mirò’s poetic constellations or Calder’s mobiles, closing the circle with Impression soleil levant by Gérard Fromanger, from 2019.

Above, left, Paul Signac, “Le port au soleil couchant”, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez), 1982. Oil on canvas, Postdam, Museen der Hasso Plattner Foundation GmbH. Right, André Derain, “Big Ben”, 1906. Oil on canvas, Troyes, Musée d’art modern de Troyes, collections nationales Pierre et Denise Levy

© Olivier Frajman Photographe

Above, Edward Munch, “The Sun”, 1910-1013. Oil on canvas. Oslo, Munchmuseet. Below, left, Gérard Fromanger, “Le soleil inonde ma toile”, “Le tableau en question” series, 1966, glycero, acrylic on cut wood. Collection Fanny Deleuze.Richard Pousette-Dart, Golden Center, 1964. Oil on canvas, Munich, private collection

© Courtesy : American contemporary Art Gallery, Munich

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