Water Lilies Paintings (1897-1926) by
Claude Monet
Explanation of Impressionist Landscapes
of Giverny Water Gardens
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Water Lilies Paintings (1897-1926) by
Claude Monet
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Water Lilies (Nymphéas) (1897-1926)
Contents • Description Name: Series of Paintings of Water
Lilies (Nymphéas) (1897-1926)
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Analysis of Monet's Paintings of Water Lilies at GivernyThe Impressionist paintings of water lilies (nymphéas) created by Claude Monet during the last thirty years of his life, are often considered by art critics to represent his finest work. They demonstrate his extraordinary skill at plein-air painting, his feeling for colour and appreciation of light. In 1883 he rented a house at Giverny, fifty miles from Paris. Seven years later he bought the house and shortly afterwards in 1893 purchased a meadow near the property which contained a pond fed by the Ru River, a branch of the Seine. He hired at least six gardeners who gradually shaped the meadow into a garden of willows, irises and water lilies specially imported from Japan. He had an arched wooden 'Japanese' bridge built across a narrow part of the water garden, and he also had to control the flow of the River Ru to raise the temperature of the water to help the imported water lilies thrive. This caused a protest by the locals of Giverny, since they used the river for their washing and they believed that Monet's 'Japanese Garden' would pollute their water. Monet painted the gardens around the house and then turned his attention to the water gardens, painting them repeatedly between 1897 and his death in 1926. In all, he produced more than 250 oil paintings of his lily ponds and his Japanese bridge, executed in different sunlight and at different times of the day.
One of the gardeners was hired especially to maintain the lilies in such a way as to suit Monet's paintings, and - as early as 1901 - Monet admitted "These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession." This realization did not, however, deter him from pressing ahead, even when he began suffering from cataracts. In later years, this condition caused him to depend more and more on his step-daughter and daughter-in-law Blanche Hoschede Monet (1865-1947), who - from 1911 - took over the running of Giverny and its gardens. Monet finally had an operation in 1923, losing all sight in his right eye. To facilitate his work he had a large studio built in his garden - measuring some 12 by 24 metres (40 by 80 feet) - which enabled him to paint his huge water lily canvases. Today, these monumental works of French painting are seen as some of the most important contributions to the development of modern art, and sell for anything up to $50 million. The paintings - see, for instance, "Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond" (1920, Museum of Modern Art, New York) - represent not just what was in front of Monet's eyes but also what he was feeling. Indeed, he sometimes combined into a single painting panels of different views that had been painted at different times in different lighting conditions. These late water lily pictures combine Impressionism with Expressionism in almost equal measure, and verge on abstract art, as Monet's attempt to capture the constantly changing natural light and colour ends up dissolving all spatial cues. As he mingles water and sky, Monet creates a peaceful meditation within a flowering, watery surround. His focus on painting as a surface covered with paint, was taken up later after World War II, by practitioners of American Expressionism, notably Jackson Pollock (1912-56). In the mid-1920s, the French government authorized the construction of a pair of oval-shaped rooms at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris, as a permanent home for eight huge water lily mural paintings by Monet, including: "The Water Lilies, Clouds" (1920–1926); and "The Water Lilies, Setting Sun" (1920–1926). It opened to the public in May 1927, not long after Monet's death.
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Most Famous Water Lily Paintings Here is a selection of Monet's most celebrated water lily compositions in public collections. (Note: "Nymphaea" is the botanical name for a water lily.) - "Nympheas" (1897-8) Los Angeles
County Museum of Art.
Explanation of Other Paintings by Monet • Women
in the Garden (1866-7) Musee d'Orsay, Paris. • La
Grenouillere (1869) Metropolitan Museum of Art. • Poppy
Field (Argenteuil) (1873) Musee d'Orsay, Paris. • Impression:
Sunrise (1873) Musee Marmottan, Paris. • Gare
Saint-Lazare (1877) Musee d'Orsay, Paris. • The
Beach at Trouville (1870) Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT.
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• For the meaning of other Impressionist landscape paintings, see: Homepage.
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