The Seine at Saint-Cloud

In 1890 Edvard Munch stayed in Saint-Cloud outside Paris. Inspired by the impressionism and the neoimpressionism he painted the river Seine, during the winter through spring, from different angles and at different times of the day.

In his motive “The Seine at Saint-Cloud” from 1890, Munch used a rather experimental way of painting, where the waters surface has been vastly accentuated.

Munch lets the river and its banks follow strict parallel lines, so that the pictorial surface is separated into horizontal patches of color. The slightly arching line to the boat at the pier, the leaves on the tree and the shadow of the tree trunk are the only things interfering with the otherwise straight lines of the composition.

Both Monet and Sisley had used similar composition formulas from the early 1870’s, but the most strikingly analogies to Munch painting can be found in Cailebotte and Sissleys later works. This is a great indication that Munch from the very beginning paid attention to the latest news within the contemporary art scene.

Technically it is quite close to the impressionism, and both the treatment of the water, the short pale-green strokes on the sky and the even blue shadows brings some obvious associations to Monet.

At the same time the systematic way of applying the color in small points, known as pointillism, from the neoimpressionism is recognizable. This technique smoothens the pictorial surface of the painting and makes it dense and homogeneous.

Even though there is no strict use of the complimentary colors in this painting, it is obvious that Munch knew the color theories, that in the mid 1880’s led to the neoimpressionism.

Examples of this can be found in the sunlit tree trunk, bound by two dotted lines, dark blue and green on the shadowy side and yellow on the lit side, and in the interplay of the complimentary colors in the green line at the waters surface.