Professor Butter Beard and Monet’s “Argenteuil in Winter”
“Light to a tree is food, to as star is honor, to sage is truth, and to a universe is life.” – Matshona Dhliwayo, Canadian based philosopher, entrepreneur, and author
The light is returning. Nellie and I particularly noticed it this morning of New Year’s Eve, as we bounced towards the ocean waves at 5am, just as the sky was beginning to lift its dark velvet curtain revealing intense streaks of pink, orange, purple and sunrise blue. Some of my favorite artists have perfectly captured that magic of morning light: Vermeer and his blueish-white Dutch light streaming through open windows; Vincent and his frenzied swirls of light in the open air; Albert Bierstadt and his intense sunrises over the Rocky Mountains. But if anyone perfectly captured the light Nellie and I absorbed this morning, it was Oscar-Claude Monet.
In 1871, Monet moved with his family to Argenteuil, a suburb north-west of Paris that was connected to the capital by a 15-minute train journey. During his six-year stay there he painted over two hundred pictures of the town and its surroundings. He depicted the ordinary streets, the road bridge, the railway bridge with stream trains puffing across it, river walks and smart villas. The rapidly expanding suburb was known as a popular destination for summer day trips and pleasure boating, but it was not an untouched rural idyll as it also had factories, ironworks and brick works that brought wealth to the area.
The winter of 1874-75 was an extreme one with plummeting temperatures and intense snowfall. The great, heavy wet blankets of snow totally transformed the familiar landscapes of Argenteuil, giving an old motif a new facade. In “Boulevard Saint-Denis, Argenteuil in Winter,” he has taken his view from a spot on a small pathway, between the railway embankment and the boulevard, and created an interesting multi-directional composition, perfectly illuminated with the colors of a winter sunrise.
The blustery snowstorm drives across the canvas, with the sun, weakly yellow and pink, barely breaking through the wet sky. He has used soft pink and blue hues throughout, from the coloring in the sky to the warm exterior of the buildings and the snow itself, giving it great density. The paint on the road in the foreground is thicker than elsewhere in the picture, perhaps because Monet was trying to suggest the physical presence of deep snow. The dark tones of the fence and the bowed, bustling figures provide a strong contrast to the delicacy of the rest and give the picture an overall solid form and depth.
I believe Monet himself states it best: “For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.”
In December of 1879, Théodore Duret purchased this painting directly from Monet. Recalling a conversation with the artist Édouard Manet, Duret years later reported that, “One winter he (Manet) wanted to paint a snow scene. I had in my possession just such a piece from Monet. After seeing it, he said ‘It is perfect! I would not know how to do better,’ whereupon he gave up painting snow.”
Nellie and I returned to a warm kitchen, and she snuggled deep into the sofa blankets to nap as I ground my coffee beans with a few cardamom pods and turned on the oven. Monet’s impression of a winter sunrise inspired me to bake a cake filled with representations of the artist’s palette. For the sun’s gold, I added corn from this past year’s famer’s market, defrosted and sauteed in brown butter and enhanced with fresh rosemary still growing just outside my door. For the rich blues, I added blueberries, also from the market, frozen the day they were picked. And for the white of the snow, I topped the finished cake with a citrus glaze made with confectionary’s sugar, fresh lemon and lime juice and a dab of sweet butter.
After a second runabout with the Nelster, I poured another cup of coffee, cut a slice of cake, and tasted Monet’s winter sunrise. And yes, Nellie enjoyed a small nibble as well!
May the increasing morning light shine within us all. Happy New Year!
Sweet Corn, Rosemary and Blueberry Bundt
1 10-cup Bundt Cake
For the corn:
1 ½ cups fresh (or frozen) corn kernels
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, lightly browned
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
For the cake:
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
Grated zest of two lemons and one lime (save the fruit for the glaze)
2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp vanilla paste
6 large eggs, room temperature
2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine sea salt
1/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 cup fresh (or frozen) blueberries
Glaze:
Juice of the lemons and lime
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
Dash of fine sea salt
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2) Brown the butter in a large sauté pan and add the corn just to cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the freshly chopped rosemary. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
3) Spray a lovely Bundt pan with cooking spray with flour and set aside.
4) In a standing mixer, beat the sugar together with the lemon and lime zest and additional rosemary until the oils are fully distributed and the sugar looks a bit wet.
5) Add in the butter and vanilla paste and mix until very light and fluffy.
6) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and sea salt. Since there is a good amount of baking powder, you will want it evenly distributed. Set aside.
7) Add the eggs, one at a time, to the creamed butter/sugar mixture and beat well after each addition. Add the dry mix and beat until no dry streaks remain. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the buttermilk, the corn and then the blueberries.
8) Spoon the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake on a center rack for 45-50 minutes, checking for doneness with a wooden skewer (if it comes out clean, the cake is done).
9) Once your cake has come out of the oven, let it cool in the pan for 10-12 minutes before inverting..
10) While the cake cools, make your glaze. In a small pan, bring the juice, butter and salt to a simmer. While still hot, pour over the confectioner’s sugar and whisk until smooth. Pour over the top of the cooled cake.
