Geometric Illusions: Cathedral of Reflected Realities

Claude Monet’s Rouen Cathedral, the Façade in Sunlight (1894) embodies the Impressionist fascination with capturing the fleeting play of light and shadow upon the stone façade. Monet’s original brushstrokes danced over the surface of the cathedral, capturing ephemeral moments as the sunlight shifted across intricate stonework, dissolving solid structures into mere impressions of color and light. The cathedral ceased to be merely architectural; it became a canvas for Monet’s exploration of vision, impermanence, and the way time itself interacts with surfaces, both tangible and intangible.
In this conceptual geometric reinterpretation, the cathedral’s facade is translated into layers of fractured planes and translucent reflections, presenting a landscape that exists simultaneously in multiple states of perception. Geometric shapes dominate this visual experience—sharp angles and precise lines fragment Monet’s softly blended colors, reassembling them into an elaborate puzzle where form and void intersect. The familiar silhouette of Rouen Cathedral, painted by Monet in 1892, emerges from and recedes into angular fragments and geometric transparencies, echoing the original’s fleeting impressions yet adding new dimensions of structure and clarity.
The artwork’s structure itself suggests a prismatic lens through which the cathedral is viewed. Like shards of glass, triangular panels and rectangular frames intersect at various angles, slicing through the image, dispersing Monet’s gentle blues, warm ochres, and subtle shades of gold into scattered refractions. Each geometric shape holds its portion of the facade, preserving fragments of Monet’s original light while simultaneously transforming the image into something abstract and contemporary, something architectural and intangible. It captures both the complexity of perception and the elegant simplicity inherent in Monet’s Impressionist approach.
Central to the composition, an abstracted human face is softly visible amid the cathedral’s geometry, its features formed and dissolved by overlapping planes and subtle shifts in transparency. The presence of this figure symbolizes the observer, merging into the structure itself, embodying the intimate relationship between viewer and artwork. The face’s eyes remain partially visible, gazing outward yet obscured, reflecting the idea that perception itself is subjective, always filtered through personal experience, culture, memory, and emotion.
The architecture around the cathedral is reframed and reshaped into symmetrical patterns, reminiscent of reflections in glass skyscrapers, creating an urban atmosphere. Sharp geometric angles intersect with softer curves, bringing tension and balance simultaneously. The transparency of the geometric forms suggests fragility and strength, presence and absence, echoing Monet’s fascination with capturing transient visual sensations. The use of geometric abstraction, an artistic form far from Monet’s original Impressionism, reinforces a contemporary interpretation of the cathedral as something both physically present and intellectually constructed—something built not from stone alone but from layers of perception and reflection.
Light and color remain essential tools, reminiscent of Monet's palette but translated into a controlled yet vibrant scheme of pastel blues, soft earth tones, and delicate shades of green. Warm sunlight, echoing Monet's original vision, filters through angular spaces, casting shadows and highlights upon transparent surfaces. This interplay of light and color creates an atmospheric depth, making the cathedral facade feel at once present and elusive, tangible yet ephemeral.
Geometric lines cutting across the piece imply directions of sight, lines of gaze, and architectural scaffolding—suggesting that perception itself is constructed. Vision is never passive, it is an active process shaped by perspective and expectation. The cathedral facade becomes not only an object to be admired but a medium through which the viewer questions their own understanding of reality and appearance. The geometry serves as a metaphor for how perspectives intersect, overlap, and sometimes collide, each revealing a different fragment of truth.
My artistic intention with this composition was to explore perception through the structured chaos of geometry. Monet captured the changing light on Rouen Cathedral to understand the nature of seeing; here, that concept is taken further, exploring not just visual perception but cognitive perception—how we mentally piece together fragments of reality into coherent understanding. The cathedral itself, iconic yet reimagined through intersecting shapes, stands as a testament to the subjective nature of vision, a place existing not just in physical space, but in the mind’s eye.
The abstract face, subtly suggested amid the structural forms, further emphasizes the human role in creating meaning from visual experiences. The cathedral is not merely observed; it is internalized, reconstructed in the mind, filtered through memory and imagination. The architecture of the cathedral and the geometry around it symbolize external reality, while the face represents internal understanding, reminding us that our perception is always a synthesis of what we see and what we imagine.
Ultimately, this reinterpretation does not simply represent Rouen Cathedral but uses it as a vehicle to communicate something deeper about reality itself. The piece is about the interplay of stability and change, about how our view of reality can shift dramatically depending on where we stand, and about the inherent beauty found in the tension between what is known and what remains unknowable. This geometric conceptual artwork invites the viewer to reflect not just on Monet's impressionist legacy, but on the act of perception itself—how we piece together fragments of experience to form an understanding of the world around us.