Color, along with light, is the structural element of composition for Monet. The eye is the essential reading tool: unstable and constantly in motion, it traverses the pictorial surface, which is conceived as such. Throughout his life, Monet studied light extensively, working persistently to capture its ever-changing aspects in different places.
The moment is captured by the eye and immediately transposed onto canvas through painting, no longer constrained by drawing and preliminary studies, sketches, or preparatory drafts. This means that the same subject, even if painted by two artists at the same time, can appear extremely different.
The lesson of Impressionism spread to Italy thanks to the critic and patron Diego Martelli and his magazine, founded in 1867, “Il Gazzettino delle arti del disegno”. He advised Italian artists to look to French Impressionism.
Giuseppe De Nittis’s testimony was crucial. He moved to Paris in 1867 and then permanently in 1871. He gained recognition both in the official Salon and among the Impressionists, whose style he approached and who invited him to the 1874 exhibition.
Impressionism is not just a revolution in thought but also a physiological revolution in the human eye. It is a new theoretical approach that depends on a different way of perceiving the sensation of light and expressing impressions. Regardless of the subject, the most beautiful painting will always be the one where the impression of light is most powerfully manifested.
(Diego Martelli, 1879)