The Magpie by Claude Monet

Winter has arrived! The holiday season has begun. With it brings joy, gatherings with friends and family, holiday cheer, thankfulness. Yet the winter season and the holidays can magnify one’s aloneness. But why not choose to get quiet? To adopt the stillness, quietness, and beauty that nature brings? How glorious and revitalizing it can be!

Claude Monet’s painting, Magpie, revitalizes me. It gives me comfort and warmth as I soak in the beauty of this winter scene, the lone magpie appearing content in his aloneness…

My first impressions of this work? The whisper of freshly fallen snow. Blue shadows, cool light, cold, crisp air. Snow-covered tree limbs. The sun’s warmth. And one solitary bird perched on the gate … a magpie.

I feel beckoned to step into the composition, yet remain very aware I must keep my distance so as to not dis-turb the quiet of this moment. The scene is best appreciated when I observe from afar.

Magpie is one of Claude Monet’s best-known paintings depicting a snowy landscape. Monet was a leader in the French Impressionist movement in the third quarter of the 19th century; he and other Impressionist artists aimed to capture a fleeting moment. They sought to convey the visual impression made by a scene, par-ticularly the effect of light on color.

Monet used what is known as colored shadows to show the changing conditions of light and shadow in nature. He masterfully captured an ephemeral moment in time where, in the blink of an eye, the play of light and shadow change. In the process he succeeded in evoking within the observer the strong sense of being in this space.

For me the scene reminds me of those blistering winters at my college in Maine. Magpie transports me to the days when I walked across the snow-covered campus, with no one around, the only sound being that of the wind, and feeling totally at peace. To this day those moments remain fond memories.

What winter memories does Monet’s painting invoke in you? As you let yourself gaze at the snowy scene, can you feel the crisp air on your face and the faint warmth of sun on your skin? Do you hear the snow crunch under your feet?

And what about the lone magpie looking serene and content? How does this bird manage to survive and thrive on such a cold winter’s day?

I find this scene to be most comforting. Monet produced approximately one-hundred-forty snowy landscapes. He created these compositions by painting in the open air using natural light, and it shows. His shadows aren’t merely dark areas; they are accurate representations of what’s observed in nature. I feel it is this mastery of shadows and light through the use of color that creates that sense of immersion in Monet’s snowy scene. He and other Impressionists paved the way for presenting landscapes the observer can truly feel in a multi-sen-sory way.

Impressionism offers us another way of looking at the world, a way that focuses on the changing qualities of light and how these subtle shifts accentuate the passage of time. The techniques these artists created brought out the mood of a scene to evoke deep emotions within us.

Works like Magpie that appear simple but require nimble skills in observation, color use, and painting tech-niques reveal the true genius of an artist’s ability to present the world in a new light. Magpie awakens the senses and reminds us of how beautiful, transient, and sacred each moment in life really is.

The Thankful Poor by Henry Ossawa Tanner

Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1894, Oil On Canvas, Art Bridges

The portrait is serene and reverent: a grandfather with his grandson seated at a modest table, about to eat a simple meal together, pausing to give thanks. I am moved by the peaceful quality of the image, the simplicity and pragmatism of the items shown, the gentle glow of daylight from the window, and especially, the complete focus of the old man and young boy absorbed in prayer. The Thankful Poor emanates a sense of quiet fortitude, mutual respect, and genuine gratitude.

Painted in 1894 by Henry Ossawa Tanner, this artwork is a beautiful representation of the quiet moments shared between family members from different generations. The elderly gentleman exudes dignity as he mod- els a life of grace and faith for his grandson. Meanwhile, the child exhibits patience and restraint as he honors his grandfather’s wishes and prays to the Divine. There is a stillness that feels sacred. The painting depicts a comforting expression of love between two family members who clearly care deeply for each other.

Tanner was born in Pittsburgh in 1859 and grew up in Philadelphia. His father was a former slave who be- came a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His mother had escaped slavery through the Un- derground Railroad. Tanner grew up in a household that valued education and counted educators like Booker T. Washington as close family friends. When he was about 12, inspired by a landscape painter working in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, Tanner decided to pursue a career in art.

In many ways he and his family were groundbreakers. Tanner became the first black student at the Pennsyl- vania Academy of Fine Arts. One of his sisters became the first woman certified to practice medicine in the state of Alabama. At the age of 41, Tanner won the coveted Lippincott Prize for his oil painting Nicodemus Visiting Jesus.

When he was thirty-two Tanner went to France to study. He ended up living there the rest of his life, dying in Paris in 1937 at the age of seventy[seven. In France he enjoyed an art career that flourished, bringing him acclaim from around the world. His Resurrection of Lazarus was purchased by the French government and eventually added to the Louvre. During his sixties, he was awarded high honors in both France and the United States. During the Clinton administration many years after Tanner’s death, one of his works, Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City, became the first painting by an African American artist to be added to the White House’s permanent collection.

The Thankful Poor offers us many insights. It shows that material wealth is not needed to be rich in spirit. In fact, it is often our struggles that lead to us turning to spiritual sustenance and, ultimately, inner growth. The pair in the painting may not have much, but they have what they need. Most of all, they have an unshakable inner faith and a love for each other to not only sustain them, but also enrich them. Tanner’s painting is an im- portant reminder that our greatest riches are found not in what we own, but in our relationships and the heart.