(no subject)

I was drawn to the title of a post at geek.com, which reports on the efforts of astronomers to determine the exact time and day on which Claude Monet painted the picture below.


From the article:

[T]he team checked letters from Monet during that stay in France, as well as weather and tide records from the period, and were able to narrow down the exact time of the scene: February 5, 1883 at 4:53PM>

While I admire the perseverance of the team that did the research and arrived at this conclusion, I cannot help but wonder about the following: Why assume that Monet's image reflected physical reality? I look at the image and I imagine the sun being moved a smidge to the left, then a smidge to the right, and in both cases, the shift seems wrong. (Of course, the fault could lie between my own two ears, but I digress...)

I realize, of course, that Monet was known for painting quickly, so as to catch the light—or, rather, an impression of the light—but I am not aware of the artist pursuing any sort of maniacal verisimilitude between what was depicted on the canvas and what could be perceived through the eyes.

The finality of determining "the exact time" seems, to me, to be a bit fatuous. A range of dates would have sufficed, in my view.

* * *A big, fruity raspberry—not to be confused with a Raspberry Pi—to whatever it is that has suddenly caused Semagic to throw nothing but "Error 404: Resource not found" upon attempting to login.

Cheers...