Biblical Floods and Sunny Waves
The dissimilar approaches of John Martin and Claude Monet to their ocean scenes result in two vastly different final pieces. Martin’s piece is adjacent to the school of the sublime, natural pieces that inspire religious awe through their dramatic scapes. Monet is deeply entrenched in Impressionism, creating bright, sensual scenes of nature. Nearly double the size of Waves Breaking, Assuaging of the Waters is a striking and colorful expression of one of the best-known Old Testament stories. Monet’s waves are a sunny day captured from shore, and awe-inspiring for the beauty of a fleeting moment. As paintings moved away from religious subjects and meaning, painters had more freedom to explore their sense impressions and experiment with style.
When approaching John Martin’s painting The Assuaging of the Waters (Fig 1.) , the emphasis of the tidepool in the lower right draws first attention. As the view expands the early morning light suffuses the painting in shades of pale pink and blue. The lines in the foreground are delicate and sharp. As the painting recedes the lines of the rocks and waves are blurred, shrouded in sea mist. Where the sky meets the sea is fuzzy to the point one must squint to find Noah’s white Ark on the horizon. The bulk of the form is in the lower right corner. The tidepool in this part of the piece has shells, seaweed, a white dove, and a raven perched on a branch with a snake under its talons. The rocks continue to the left and toward the center of the canvas in a swirl. Their textures are rough-hewn and craggy with rafts of washed-up seaweed. The ocean waves are dynamic with white crests towards the foreground and smaller choppy waves in the receding plane. Waves roil between the rocks, beginning to recede after the Biblical flood. The sea is still violent but seems to be calming. The sun juts out from behind a soft pink cloud, rays of cool-toned sunshine illuminating a dark blue cloud and sea to the right. The sky is butter-soft with wisps of fog and cumulonimbus clouds.
Claude Monet’s 1881 Waves Breaking (Fig 2.) seems almost diametrically opposed to Martin’s seascape. The lines of Monet’s painting are bulky and bold. Curved and energetic in the front and flattening as the view recedes. The lines of the sky are soft and blended with the puffy wisps of clouds. The mass of the painting is even across the canvas, a block of swirling waves, and then the sky above. The color in this is exceptionally dazzling. Independent brush strokes of dark blue, teal, and white. Some sandy yellow finds its way into the mass of waves, especially in the foreground suggesting a shoreline. Texturally, this painting has impasto, blobs of painting sticking out from the surface. The suggestion of movement in the waves is lively while the sky is gentle pale blue with puffs of white for clouds. Although the wave mass seems balanced and broad at first, closer inspection leads to a variety of details. The pattern of the waves is lots of small curved paint strokes turning in on one another to show flatness in the front and back then height in the middle. The lines layer one another suggesting aggressive motion in the foreground. There is no focal point or emphasis in the painting, the eye is allowed to wander freely.
While both paintings are ocean scenes created around 40 years apart from each other, the composition, techniques, and subjects are varied from one another. Martin’s painting is a Biblical scene with allegorical animals whereas Monet has focused on the nature of the ocean devoid of any intended religious sentiment. Where Martin used line and detail to create realism, Monet’s textured and energetic strokes create a distinctly Impressionistic painting. Waves Breaking has no craggy rocks or seaweed-strewn pools. The wave is the subject rather than what the wave represents. The focal point of Assuaging is the tidepool with the white dove. It is clearest and more frontal than the rest of the misty rocks. Waves has no central point, it is a snapshot of a moment in time.
Both artists create balance in their pieces through composition. Monet by changing the direction of his strokes, Martin by the beams of sunlight and the form of the rocks. The colors of the waves suggest different impressions of the sea. Monet’s waves are sunny and bright with bits of yellow and bright blue. Martin’s sea is pale green in the front and dark deep blue further back as the light starts to break. The choppiness of the waves here is suggested by white highlights as opposed to Monet where the motion of the brushstrokes creates the effect.
The overall effect is of two different intentions in creating these artworks. Martin’s piece captures the post-flood calming of the sea. It shows the Biblical world anew and the endurance of God’s creatures after a dramatic event. Monet captures the natural ecstaticness of a sunny day at the shore. Nature is represented for nature’s sake. In both, the natural world is represented with a fine eye toward color, light, and balanced composition. When the necessity of a religious tone is removed, the artwork is allowed the freedom to divest from realism and move towards impressions.