The Comparative Imagery Study Of Monet’s Water Lilies Series And Haipai Traditional Chinese Painting

The word "Yixiang" (Image) has a long history to be traced in China, and it is highly related to Chinese traditional culture and its development. Therefore, most of Chinese artist and painter focus on "Li yi yi jin yi" (Create image to express deep meaning). Although the development of western culture has a competely different process, due to the improvement of technology, social transformation and the communication between west and east world, the thought and idea in painting of artist from west has been influenced and changed. Meanwhile, during the special period that the archaic China was forced to turned into semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the western aesthetic and the commodification of art has brought strong impact to eastern artist and changed their thought of painting. The progress and revolution in life must have effected the feel and attitude of artist, and the era that Western and Eastern world is changing together has created impressionism and Hai shang hua pai (literally Shanghai style). Claude Monet, as the iconic figure of impressionsim, his later years artwork "Water lilies" series is the representive work of Monet’s career and it can reflect the essence of his art thinking, and the painting series has a storng easternized image. In the same period, with the influence of western art and market, the representitive artists of Haipai such as Xu GU, Ren Bonian and Wu Changshuo created a unique painting style based on traditional Chinese painting by absorbing and combining the western painting style. This essay is going to focus on comparing Monet’s "Water lilies" series and Haipai artist’s artwork from different aspects including composition, coloring, brushwork and aesthetic in order to address the similiarity between Monet’s and Haipai artist’s artwork and discovering the revelation to the localization of Modern Chinese oil painting.