David Peat

108 From Certainty to Uncertaintyor strict geometrical perspective. Monet and the others wanted to paintwhat they actually saw, rather than what they expected to see, or hopedto see. 3 Cézanne said of Monet that he “is only an eye but, my God,what an eye!”To explore the effect of changing light, Monet painted the sameobject at different times of the day. Rather than seeing it as, for example,the same cathedral face but lit in different ways, Monet wasactually seeing an entirely different scene each time he painted. Lightand color were essential aspects of what lay before him. Rather thancolor being the surface attribute added on to an object, or light beingthe means by which that object was seen, light and color were coexistententities of equal importance as matter itself. They could never bedivorced from the object—the tree, the cathedral, and the locomotive—butwere an inseparable part of participatory seeing.When the Pre-Raphaelites painted their highly detailed and hyperrealisticpaintings they would stand close to each object to observe itsactual color. By contrast, Monet was aware that as he looked away fromone colored object, a fugitive sensation would impose itself on objectsnearby. (Stare at a red object then look away to a blank white wall andthere will be a green afterimage.) Likewise shadows were never blackbut made of a complementary color. Rather than attempting to bracketout these various effects as being accidental and unimportant whencompared to the surface appearance of things, Monet felt they were allequally worthy of his attention. He even went so far with these “fugitivesensations” as to include the “floaters”—tiny bits of fat that movewithin the eye and cross our field of vision—in his paintings. At theheight of his powers Monet worked like a scientist, constantly observing,experimenting, and seeking to set down the truth.Cézanne was equally forthright when it came to the search for visualtruth. Cézanne’s aim was to move beyond Impressionism as ameans of setting down visual sensations, by combining it with a new3The most common mistake among those who enter art school is that theypaint and draw what they think lies before them, rather than paying close attentionto what it is they are actually seeing. A traditional training is about opening the eyesand learning how to see.