Monet and van Gogh both left us with prolific bodies of work each representing

their own view of life through their work on canvas and in their thoughts and words. Through their paintings, writings and letters we have been fortunate enough to understand both men's struggle for recognition as artists in a period when classicism was still held as the highest form of art. Aside from their shared struggle for acceptance as progressive artists-and perhaps an equal fascination with Japanese block prints-they are no closer to being alike than an apple and a grapefruit.

Though Monet did not come from a wealthy family, he became involved with a group of peers that were well educated or part of the French aristocracy. The group, consisting of Degas, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro among others, all had one thing in common.

Monet's friend Geffroy spoke of his compositional arrangements saying, "Monet seeks the aspect of nature which by its arrangement, form and horizon best suits the play of light, shadow and colouring in front of him." All these elements were most certainly considered in this composition beginning with the location and the time of day. The park, which was probably a recent installation of the Baron Haussman, gives a view of a clean and modern Paris. The children sitting on the ground suggests that the path was probably paved, also a new development for the Paris of this time. And the sun filtering in through the trees and flooding areas of the shaded grass with light suggests that the sun is almost directly above the scene, making it just before or just after noon.

In this 24 x 30 inch depiction, we find a peasant family in a plowed field next to their house. The father, who kneels in the left foreground, awaits his young child with open arms, a shovel at his side. The mother, who bends over and holds her child while it tries to make its first steps, is set fairly central in the composition. To the left and behind the father is a wheelbarrow full of soil and further off behind the action is the farmhouse with a thatched roof. In front of the house is a rickety looking fence which holds the laundry and off to the right is a crooked gate that leads us into the obviously peasant scene.

Like Monet, van Gogh also was quite painterly in his approach to a composition, but instead of his strokes becoming almost arbitrary looking marks on a canvas, he created patterns with them. Rather than create just a true image of what he saw, he exaggerated it and with the patterning created something that was completely energized and had a very tactile quality to it. Not that nature was any less important to van Gogh, in fact it was possibly more important, but he felt that the realist approach the Impressionists took left out much of the richness he saw in the world. This world, of course, was only available to van Gogh, for even his good friends and fellow Post Impressionists, Gaugin and Bernard, like the rest of us, would never see the world as he did.

The painting, unlike many of van Gogh's others, is almost monochromatic and very cool. The usual brightness and use of complimentary colors we equate with his work are not present. Perhaps the stay in the asylum at St. Remy effected his work and choice of color or maybe this was just how he was to translate these twelve canvases after Millet that were intended to be donated to a school. More probable is the notion that his breakdown effected his work because we even see a similar, somber palette of mostly blue and gr

Some common words found in the essay are:
Baron Haussman, Parc Monceau, Van Gogh, St Remy, Claude Monet, Picking Olives, Post Impression, Van Gogh's, Albert Aurier, Renoir Pissarro, van gogh, van gogh's, st remy, monet van gogh, unlike van, light shadow, vincent van, dark greens, monet van, left foreground, lower left,
Approximate Word count = 1805
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)