Cathedral #4, from the Cathedral Series

Monet's paintings of Rouen Cathedral are among the most systematic, and beautiful, works of Impressionism. Allowing the movement of the sun to dictate his palette, Monet used layers of colors to capture the shifting gradations of light and shadow across the building's facade. Seventy years later, Lichtenstein's own series of Cathedrals repeats the composition and even sustains an optical intensity, but affects the flat, impersonal effect of commercial printing processes in ironic translation of Monet's minutely differentiated and rich paint handling. This translation of the personal touch of the artist into the visual language of mechanical printing techniques is an example of the oftentimes aggressive appropriation of art historical sources by Pop artists.