Monet Fusing Surprise

[P3D <Linnstaedt@xxxxxxx>]

The Kimbell Museum (Fort Worth) is hosting a showing of Monet's paintings of
the Mediterranean coast of France and Italy (the Riviera) from the 1880s to
early 1900s.  Magnificent!  But oh, what a surprise for the
Free-view-enabled.  ;-)

Many of these works were painted in series.  Four canvases may show the same
scene, but at a different time of day, or in varying distances.  Or even from
different angles.  Sometimes only _slightly_ different.

I spent this afternoon going about the gallery, fusing Monet paintings in the
cross-eyed fashion.  (It's the only way to free-fuse two full-size canvases
separated by several feet).  Surprise!  Some of the paintings form stereo
pairs!!

But even more exciting, this exercise (difficult, but worthy) showed me that
Monet's works are very exacting in scale, dimension, and position.  Almost as
if he used a camera to record the scene before painting it; they are _that_
perfect from one painting to the next.  Monet was a great master, but could
he have achieved this kind of perfection with only his eyes, brain, and
hands?  This is a mystery.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Robert Linnstaedt


------------------------------