Mornings with Monet

Starred review from March 22, 2021
The idiosyncratic painting practice of Claude Monet (1840–1926) foregrounds this engrossing picture book biography by the previous collaborators (The Noisy Paint Box). As Rosenstock deftly describes Monet’s working day—waking at 3:30 a.m., being rowed on the Seine to “a flat-bottomed punt,” his studio boat—she adds daubs of biographical detail: the gardens at Giverny, Monet’s youth leading “a band of rebel artists... Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot.” Descriptions of his process illuminate and shine alongside GrandPré’s acrylic paint and ink illustrations: readers peer over Monet’s shoulder as he works his way through 14 canvases, each for only as many minutes as it “matches what he sees,” capturing “a series of transparencies: water, air, and memory.” At times, Rosenstock’s luminous language offers gentle humor (“Monet wipes his brow; it is not easy to paint air”) as GrandPré’s glowing dabs of color and visible brushstrokes offer a soft, legible introduction to the style of Monet’s radical works. Ages 4–8.

March 1, 2021
Rosenstock and GrandPre (The Noisy Paint Box, rev. 1/14; Vincent Can't Sleep, rev. 11/17; Through the Window, rev. 9/18) provide an impression of the artist over a single morning, as Claude Monet sets out on his studio barge to paint the river Seine as the sun rises. His process for creating the "Morning on the Seine" series is intriguing, fresh, and very particular. Rosenstock carefully describes his setting up each canvas alongside the next, painting quickly on each in turn as the sun rises and changes the light on the water. Through her illustrations of that one morning, from 3 a.m. until family breakfast a few hours later, GrandPre captures Monet's style, mimicking with acrylic paint and ink his brushstrokes and use of color so the viewer learns about the artist while getting a feel for the texture of the art itself; five images of Monet's work are appended. Rosenstock's text is engaging and well researched (although without specific endnotes, it is not entirely clear if she is extrapolating when she describes Monet's feelings: "He imagines [the sun's] warmth playing on the face of his wife Alice, still asleep"). Still, the solid list of sources and author's note provide context for Rosenstock's poetic language. The book works well both as an introduction to Monet and his work and as additional reading for a child who is already familiar with the Impressionist painter. Maeve Visser Knoth

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from January 1, 2021
Claude Monet spends an early morning in his "studio boat," painting scenes of the Seine. Rosenstock and GrandPr�, who've amply demonstrated their ability to distill an artist's work into a rich essence for young readers with biographies of Kandinsky, Van Gogh, and Chagall, now describe an imagined morning in the life of Monet, a founding impressionist. Here, the painter, now rich and famous, sets off to work at 3:30 a.m. In her respectful narrative, the writer's word choice is precise and revealing. Monet "clambers aboard" his boat and counts his canvases in French: "un, deux, trois, quatre." Rosenstock describes his working process, "painting the river's colors, and the air around the colors," and she weaves in some historical background. GrandPr�'s illustrations, painted with acrylics, support and enhance the text. Readers see an older White man with a lush white beard and the "broad belly" and "sturdy legs" of the text. Toward the end, one particularly appealing spread shows Monet's tools--the canvas, the palette, the brushes--and the artist, satisfied with his morning's work. The colors are astonishing: from the bright aquamarine of the cover, the faintly violet dawn, the pinks, yellows, and oranges of the sunlight, and the tea-colored interiors. Always, there are brush strokes of other colors visible. An informative author's note extends the artist's biography, but the picture of his life painted in this single encounter is sufficient. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 63% of actual size.) A worthy introduction to this master artist. (sources, acknowledgments) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

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January 1, 2021
Rosenstock and GrandPre (The Noisy Paint Box, rev. 1/14; Vincent Can't Sleep, rev. 11/17; Through the Window, rev. 9/18) provide an impression of the artist over a single morning, as Claude Monet sets out on his studio barge to paint the river Seine as the sun rises. His process for creating the "Morning on the Seine" series is intriguing, fresh, and very particular. Rosenstock carefully describes his setting up each canvas alongside the next, painting quickly on each in turn as the sun rises and changes the light on the water. Through her illustrations of that one morning, from 3 a.m. until family breakfast a few hours later, GrandPre captures Monet's style, mimicking with acrylic paint and ink his brushstrokes and use of color so the viewer learns about the artist while getting a feel for the texture of the art itself; five images of Monet's work are appended. Rosenstock's text is engaging and well researched (although without specific endnotes, it is not entirely clear if she is extrapolating when she describes Monet's feelings: "He imagines �the sun's] warmth playing on the face of his wife Alice, still asleep"). Still, the solid list of sources and author's note provide context for Rosenstock's poetic language. The book works well both as an introduction to Monet and his work and as additional reading for a child who is already familiar with the Impressionist painter.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)