GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Twentieth-century art is inconceivable without Claude Monet's paintings of water lilies. They are, in many ways, as important in the history of artistic invention as the Analytic Cubism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque or the decorative abstraction of Henri Matisse. Painted between 1899 and the painter's death in 1926, they are among the greatest "late" works in the history of art. Monet moved to his long, rustic farmhouse in Giverny in 1883. In 1890, he acquired more property and devoted himself to creating out of it an ideal garden, as distinct from the real, rural subjects he had painted and continued to paint until 1900. The garden was divided into two major parts: the flower garden near the house and, in a swampy field, the water garden created by diverting a tributary of the Epte River. The flower garden was arranged in a rectilinear pattern of paths, while the water garden was completely curvilinear, encircling a peanut-shaped pond with a Japanese footbridge at the narrow focal point. Monet became less and less concerned with conventional pictorial space in his transcription of the water garden. By 1904, the horizon line of the water landscapes had crept to the very top of the canvas, and, by 1906, there was no horizon line at all. For Monet, the subject of the paintings increasingly became the surface of the water. At once a mirror of the world above and a window into the world within the pool, Monet's illusionistic surface was in every sense the ultimate pictorial surface. By 1910, he had transcended the conventional boundaries of easel painting and had begun to create immense decorations that culminated in the series of water lilies commissioned by the French government for two oval galleries in the Orangerie.
Excerpt from
DMA label copy, 1993.
NOTES
Created in 1908
Check Piction
Label copy:
Having settled in Giverny, France, in 1883, Claude Monet bought his home and gardens in which he diverted a small stream to form a pond for the cultivation of aquatic plants. Over many years, he expanded the pond to accommodate a small Japanese bridge and water lilies.
In a letter from August 1908, Monet wrote to the art critic Gustave Geffroy about his efforts in translating his water lily pond to canvas: “These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession. They are quite beyond the powers of an old man, and yet I want to succeed in rendering what I perceive.” From this obsession, Monet produced forty-eight paintings for his 1909 Water Lilies exhibition at the Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, including this circular painting. Monet created only four paintings of his beloved subject in this experimental tondo format, preferring to use either square or large horizontal canvases.
Hannah Fullgraf, McDermott Graduate Curatorial Intern for European Art, October 2012
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
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Place of origin and depicted location: Giverny (France): TGN: 7009209
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Historical periods
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RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- YouTube~Watch this video of Monet painting en plein air, or outdoors, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
- Museé de l'Orangerie, Paris~Learn more about Monet's Water Lilies cycle.
- Khan Academy~Watch this video about Monet's Water Lilies cycle.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- Claude Monet gifted several of his Water Lilies to the French State as a symbol of peace on Armistice Day in 1918, the day which, in effect, ended World War I.
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General Description
Twentieth-century art is inconceivable without Claude Monet's paintings of water lilies. They are, in many ways, as important in the history of artistic invention as the Analytic Cubism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque or the decorative abstraction of Henri Matisse. Painted between 1899 and the painter's death in 1926, they are among the greatest "late" works in the history of art. Monet moved to his long, rustic farmhouse in Giverny in 1883. In 1890, he acquired more property and devoted himself to creating out of it an ideal garden, as distinct from the real, rural subjects he had painted and continued to paint until 1900. The garden was divided into two major parts: the flower garden near the house and, in a swampy field, the water garden created by diverting a tributary of the Epte River. The flower garden was arranged in a rectilinear pattern of paths, while the water garden was completely curvilinear, encircling a peanut-shaped pond with a Japanese footbridge at the narrow focal point. Monet became less and less concerned with conventional pictorial space in his transcription of the water garden. By 1904, the horizon line of the water landscapes had crept to the very top of the canvas, and, by 1906, there was no horizon line at all. For Monet, the subject of the paintings increasingly became the surface of the water. At once a mirror of the world above and a window into the world within the pool, Monet's illusionistic surface was in every sense the ultimate pictorial surface. By 1910, he had transcended the conventional boundaries of easel painting and had begun to create immense decorations that culminated in the series of water lilies commissioned by the French government for two oval galleries in the Orangerie.
Excerpt from
DMA label copy, 1993.
Fun Facts
- Claude Monet gifted several of his Water Lilies to the French State as a symbol of peace on Armistice Day in 1918, the day which, in effect, ended World War I.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- YouTube~Watch this video of Monet painting en plein air, or outdoors, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
- Museé de l'Orangerie, Paris~Learn more about Monet's Water Lilies cycle.
- Khan Academy~Watch this video about Monet's Water Lilies cycle.
Notes
Created in 1908
Check Piction
Label copy:
Having settled in Giverny, France, in 1883, Claude Monet bought his home and gardens in which he diverted a small stream to form a pond for the cultivation of aquatic plants. Over many years, he expanded the pond to accommodate a small Japanese bridge and water lilies.
In a letter from August 1908, Monet wrote to the art critic Gustave Geffroy about his efforts in translating his water lily pond to canvas: “These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession. They are quite beyond the powers of an old man, and yet I want to succeed in rendering what I perceive.” From this obsession, Monet produced forty-eight paintings for his 1909 Water Lilies exhibition at the Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, including this circular painting. Monet created only four paintings of his beloved subject in this experimental tondo format, preferring to use either square or large horizontal canvases.
Hannah Fullgraf, McDermott Graduate Curatorial Intern for European Art, October 2012
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin and depicted location: Giverny (France): TGN: 7009209
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
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Objects
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