1882, Claude Monet, The Chef (Le Père Paul) -- Belvedere Palace (Vienna)
From the museum label: The light! The colors! Impressionist paintings seem to radiate light from within. Close up, all we see at first are dabs of paint. Only from the right distance do the chef's hat and jacket, illuminated passages and shadows take shape. Like all Impressionists, Claude Monet was not interested in meticulously depicting real objects but rather in the fleeting perception of optical phenomena. The sitter is Paul Antoine Graff. He was a much-lauded chef and the owner of a small hotel in Pourville in northern France where Monet stayed for several weeks in 1882. In 1903 this painting was shown at the Vienna Secession, where it was purchased for this museum.
1882, Claude Monet, The Chef (Le Père Paul) -- Belvedere Palace (Vienna)
From the museum label: The light! The colors! Impressionist paintings seem to radiate light from within. Close up, all we see at first are dabs of paint. Only from the right distance do the chef's hat and jacket, illuminated passages and shadows take shape. Like all Impressionists, Claude Monet was not interested in meticulously depicting real objects but rather in the fleeting perception of optical phenomena. The sitter is Paul Antoine Graff. He was a much-lauded chef and the owner of a small hotel in Pourville in northern France where Monet stayed for several weeks in 1882. In 1903 this painting was shown at the Vienna Secession, where it was purchased for this museum.