Isn't the colour purple full of fascination, intrigue and mystery?
To me, the purple fog in Monet's painting "Misty morning on the Seine" enters and engulfes my mind with this mystery, wisdom, bravery and spirituality.
Like a mood, it penetrates you, touches you, passes through you and then never lets you go. To me, the painting is poetry at its finest.
It is a puzzling feeling indeed.
Yet, in other countries, such as Thailand, purple is the symbolic meaning of death and mourning.
Given my life experiences, I too can empathise with this interpretation.
As a matter of fact, I associate the colour purple more with death and mourning than I connect it to the colour black.
And there is also the association of purple with power, wealth, courage and bravery, which takes us back to the beginning of power and world leadership struggles.
What a stirring mixture of associations with one colour!
But why this colour?
Why not any other colour on the spectrum?
One of the answers might be that purple is a combination of red and blue, which means it is neither a warm nor a cold colour.
Purple also tends to occur rarely in nature, so naturally, anything which is perceived as infriguent becomes intriguing and - straight away, more valued.
Is it this scarse visibility in nature which perhaps causes it to seem linked to the unknown, supernatural and divine?
Meaning around the world
I have put on my Sherlock hat and investigated the meaning of Purple around the world.
- In many Western cultures purple represents royalty, wealth, and fame. However, in some parts of Europe, it is associated with death.
- In Eastern/Asian cultures purple also represents nobility in most Asian cultures. However, it is also a symbol of mourning in Thailand.
- In the Middle East purple also represents wealth.
- In Brazil, purple indicates mourning or death.
- In Africa, purple is also a symbol of royalty and wealth in Africa.
- For many, purple is considered tiring for the eyes and can cause a sense of frustration — often symbolising lust or sorrow in major artworks.
- While purple had its regal comeback in the 20th century—worn by George VI in his official portrait and featuring as the prominent colour used for the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953—it was also becoming associatedwith social change.
- Specifically, the Women’s Suffrage movement used the colours purple, green and white in the battle to win the right to vote for women.
- In the U.S., the Purple Heart is one of the highest honors for bravery in military service. The award, originally called the Badge of Military Merit, was created in 1782 by George Washington to give to soldiers for commendable action.
- In Japan the color violet, or murasaki, is the color of warriors and symbolizes nobility and strength. The only flower that could be presented to samurai were irises, as their sharp leaves reminded the blade of a samurai sword called katana.
A purple Iris for the brave and noble samurai.
Purple in Art
The colour purple is said to have first appeared in art during the Neolithic era. (10,000–4,500 B.C.)
The prehistoric artists in France used sticks of manganese and hematite powder to draw and paint animals and outlines on the walls of their caves.
Purple hues were especially popular with the pre-Raphaelite painters in Britain.
Their characteristic purple was made from mixing cobalt blue with madder, and notably enhanced Arthur Hughes’ bold, romantic scenes.
"April Love" Arthur Hughes ca. 1855
The wonderful Gustav Klimt would also take a liking to the colour, flooding many of his works with sensual purples and bright violets.
Water Serpents II, Gustav Klimt 1907
“I have finally discovered the true colour of the atmosphere. It’s violet. Three years from now, everyone will work in violet.” Claude Monet
But one of the most famous pioneers and prolific users of purple was the French impressionist painter Claude Monet.
Violet, hailed as a new hue, became a fad (as the critics called it) in the 19th centuy and its use spread quickly amongst the impressionists.
It was not the yellow, red blue or green but the violet tones which could now be seen on almost every canvas.
Because of this tonality - using purples, pinks and blue hues this fad was described as "Violettomania" and violet became the name for the shock colour of the era.
Art critics hated it and where offended by the overwhelming "abuse" of the colour - but the painters, especially Monet, loved it.
The Haystacks series (1890 - 1891)
Monet settled in Giverny in 1883 and had developed an intense fascination with the visual nuances of the region's landscape. He loved the many changes and variations during the seasons.
Most of his paintings from 1883 until his death 40 years later, were of the countryside close to his home. Indeed, the haystacks were situated just outside his house.
In the autumn of 1890, he arranged to have the wheat stacks left out over the winter, so he could paint them under the conditions of multiple kinds of seasonal weather.
For the next 18 months, Monet solely focused on this passion and it was here, he put his newfound colour theory, which in essence is “Violettomania”, into practise.
Monet was such a hard worker - his daily routine involved him carting paints and canvasses across the field to paint the haystacks with his assistant. He had two sets of canvasses to work on and only developed the one that closely resembled the fluctuation of light.
During the long days of painting, he had come to think that shadows were colours of complementary tones when light struck, not black. And since the sun was yellow, he reasoned the shadows should be purple.
By the following summer, Monet had painted the haystacks at least 30 times, at different times throughout the seasons.
"Grainstacks in the morning, Snow effect", 1891
"Haystacks" was the first group of multiple versions of a theme that he exhibited in 1891.
You can see the delicate visualization of light in this particular piece above and the fleeting effects of light and color.
This haystacks paintings have captured winter daylight and it is a vibrant portrayal of a simple yet effective subject, showing the artist's brilliance for capturing light.
The pinks in the sky echo the snow's reflections, and the blues of the wheat stacks shadows are found in the wintry light shining on the stacks, in the houses' roofs, and in the snowy earth.
With raised, broken brushstrokes, Monet captured nuances of light and created a solid, geometric structure that prevents the surface from simply melting into blobs.
Monet often worked directly on large-scale canvases out of doors, then reworked and completed them in his studio, so he could refine the harmonious transitions of the paintings.
He said: "For me a landscape hardly exists at all as a landscape, because its appearance is constantly changing; but it lives by virtue of its surroundings, the air and the light which vary continually."
"Haystacks" was not only Monet's first series but also the first in which he concentrated on a single subject, differentiating pictures only by color, touch, composition, and lighting and weather conditions.
The theme was among his most celebrated and the paintings sold for as much as 1,000 francs.
Finally, after years of just existing, he was able to not only live, but enjoy financial success.
As a side note:
Under Claude Monet's influence, Vincent van Gogh also created his own version of Haystacks.
"Haystacks under a rainy sky", Vincent van Gogh 1890
Misty Morning on the Seine series (1896 - 1897)
Begun in 1896, Monet’s Mornings on the Seine series was also painted over a long period - two years.
The oil paintings depicted a scene of the river Seine which again, was located close to his home in Giverny.
The series of paingings was not completed until 1897 because, just as with his haystacks, he encountered seasonal weather conditions for several months which delayed his progress.
Having patiently scouted out views along the river, Monet painted the scenes from a boat he had especially converted into a floating studio.
His viewpoint was suspended over the water to give the viewer the feeling of being weightless and bodiless.
To truly depict the essence of the early morning, Monet wanted to catch the changing effects of light as the sun rose.
He quickly found, this meant getting up at 03:30am each day, which was no mean feat - even for an early riser and perfectionist as Monet was.
We can sense the feeling of those early hours from the colours he used; the blue and purple palette.
We can see it in the reflections of the trees and water as the sun rises.
As the morning progressed, the painter switched between canvasses. This enabled him to work on as many as 10-12 canvases each day, each one depicting a slightly different tone or light effect.
As he had done before with the Haystack series, he later lined up the canvasses on easels in his studio on land and slowly completed the series.
Many versions of the canvases were noted for their softness; the colour of pinkish mauve, greens and some blue for some rounded shapes.
Misty Morning on the Seine 1896 - 1897
All in all, there were 17 paintings on this same topic, but 15 canvases were shown one year later in 1898 at the Galerie Georges Petit.
After the success of the series, Monet started to work on other series such as the "Houses of Parliament" and the "Water Lilies" series.
Houses of Parliament series (1900 - 1905)
Claude Monet painted a series of paintings of the Palace of Westminster, home of the British Parliament, during his stays in London between the years 1900-1905.
Intrigued by the challenge posed by the play of water and light, he painted the transformative beauty of London’s fog and smoke in several works executed along the banks of the Thames during three winter painting campaigns.
The paintings have all the same size and viewpoint: Monet's window at St Thomas' Hospital overlooking the Thames. They are however painted at different times of the day and at different weather circumstances.
Having stationed himself on the balcony of Saint Thomas’ Hospital across the river from his subject, he substituted one canvas for another—nineteen in all—as changing weather and light conditions dictated.
Rays of pale sunshine break through the murk in the upper right corner of the canvas and burst across the shimmering waters in overlapping strokes of pink, salmon, and yellow.
Here, Monet is concentrating on the cumulative atmosphere created when architecture is placed near water and suffused with an eerie light.
The Gothic spires of the Houses of Parliament have almost succeeded in piercing through the fog, but they are still reduced to a vague image that does not create a strong reflection in the water.
In the mauve gloom of late afternoon, the Houses of Parliament emerge as a massive silhouette.
The sun and its reflection cast a warm glow upon the scene and provide two focal points; one at the top of the painting and another at the bottom.
The whole work adheres to Monet's aesthetic principles of being pleasing to the eye.
Again, the painter later reworked and refined the canvas in his Giverny studio in 1903 in preparation for an exhibition the following year. He even worked of photographs sent to him from London to help with this process.
By now Monet had abandoned his earlier working practice of completing a painting on the spot in front of the motif.
Palace of Westminster, London 1903
The Water Lilies series (1895 - 1926)
Water Lilies is not a name of a single painting, but a name of a series of works which Claude Monet started in 1895 after he bought his home in Giverny in November 1890.
During his lifetime, the painter came back to this subject matter several times, and created more than 250 Water Lilies paintings.
"These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession." Claude Monet, 11th August 1908
In all of the Water Lilies paintings, Monet focused on the surface of the water.
He dispensed with any representation of the land or sky, only showing their reflection in the water. These paintings are typical with willows or the sky present as a reflection.
Only the presence of the Water Lilies helps the observer to understand that this is a reflection.
Water Lilies, Giverny 1919
Along with Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, Water Lilies have become the most iconic images of Impressionism.
The first series of Water Lilies, a total of twenty-five canvases, was exhibited at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1900.
This was followed nine years later by a second series of forty-eight canvases.
Monet working on the Water Lilies series for the Musée de l'Orangerie, 1920's
Prime Minister Clemenceau had always been a loyal supporter of Monet's work.
In 1914 he urged the artist to work on a larger project, which became a formal state commission in 1916.
It was for a set of large canvases depicting water lilies and would be displayed together permanently.
This would be the artist's main preoccupation before his death on 5th December 1926.
During the 1920s, the state of France built a pair of oval rooms at the Musée de l'Orangerie as a permanent home for eight Water Lily murals by Monet.
The canvases were taken from his studio and the exhibit opened to the public on 16 May 1927, a few months after Monet's death.
"Acceptance" Carina Sacher 2021
This brings me to my own humble approach of using the colour purple.
It has been said, purple has a variety of effects on the mind and body.
This includes uplifting spirits, calming the mind and nerves, enhancing the sacred, creating feelings of spirituality, increasing nurturing tendencies and sensitivity and encouraging imagination and creativity.
I concur, hence I used purple as the main colour in one of the paintings ("Acceptance") from the "colour of grief" series".
Embedded into the purity and innocence of the colour white, I wanted purple to do "the talking".
Purple has also been associated as the color related to magicians such as Merlin, so it is a colour infused with a magic meaning as well.
We think of alchemy, or the transformation of one element into another, thus purple is also about transformation and transitions.
The power of purple throughout mankind's history is truly astounding.
I am off to do some spring cleaning in my garden - look what I have found!
A little purple treasure.
One of the rare expamples of purple in nature - we have the perfect example of Magic right here.
Wishing you a very happy springtime wherever you are in the world.
Until next time.