Meditation or Rest
1870
Claude MONET
(1840 - 1926)
Oil on canvas

After his work The Luncheonwas rejected at the 1870 Salon, Monet turned from large-format figure paintings to work on more intimate scenes like Meditation. Monet's first wife Camille is pictured here staring into the emptiness. She faces the window which, in spite of the open curtains, gives no glimpse of the outside world. This painting is unusually cantemplative for Monet and more in keeping with the interiors with figures painted by James Mcneill Whistler, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. There is a melancholic note in Camille's absent gaze, emphasised by the bare wall in the middle of the composition where the lower edge of an unidentified painting appears. The Japanese fan on the mantelpiece reminds us that Monet was an early and passionate admirer of Japanese art.

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