c a t h e d r a l s

even if modern cathedrals like high rises, elevators
and other new urban designs are more utilitarian in concept,
some of them are real architectural marvels i think;
at the same time melancholic compared to an old cathedral.

photo: elevator /dfw airport /2007©sebastian
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Rouen Cathedral is located west by northwest of Paris. He painted more than thirty works of Rouen Cathedral. Monet creates a whole new way to look at the front elevation. His subject was light more than anything. He painted during different seasons and different times of day, allowing him to create many unique paintings of the same place.


ref: google images /Rouen Cathedral: Full Sunlight, 1894 Claude Monet

ps: I remember in the fall of 1993 when I stepped into New York Metropolitan's Monet room, how excited I was and how long I stared at his works. I could smell his cigar just above my shoulders as if he was standing close to me. The painted surface brought me in such a strong presence of the artist. Now whenever I see a four color print of monet around a shopping mall or so, I feel the originals are being devalued. Monet is not there on a print. But at the same time it takes away something from the originals when a print is just hanging over a mundane furniture store. My point is, over saturation of these prints of the masters makes me desensitized towards impressionism. May be that is what time does.