Monet, Water Lilies

Monet's Water Lilies at the l'Orangerie are presented in an oval-shaped room, softly lit, creating a contemplative atmosphere reminiscent of a religious context. These late-life works, created after personal loss, reflect Monet's legacy for the French state.

Monet dedicated his life to capturing and understanding the effects of light, from Parisian boulevards to his garden at Giverny. He not only rendered these effects but also actively created them by cultivating his gardens, transforming them onto canvas to preserve the momentary.

Monet's Water Lilies are unprecedented in landscape painting, featuring long panels without a horizon line. They deny a clear path for the eye, confronting the viewer with the water's surface. However, Monet uses elements like weeping willows on the sides, reminiscent of classical landscape framing.

Monet places the viewer on the shore, looking across the water, without a clear ground or distant horizon. He unmoors us by not providing a solid footing, yet offers a particular angle of viewing the water lilies. This creates a powerful sense of depth, with the reflections of the sky and clouds suggesting an expansive volume on a two-dimensional surface.

The paintings beautifully combine the abstraction of modern art with a tangible sense of volume. They evoke a sublime infinity in their depth and the vastness of the sky, giving a sense of permanence and transcendence despite capturing the transitory nature of reflections.

Monet's technique in these late works involves a rich, rough, and built-up surface. He used dry brushwork, layering paint to create a sculptural effect where ridges become prominent. He would return to paintings repeatedly, allowing layers to dry, which contributes to their textured, tapestry-like appearance where colors are overlaid rather than blended.

The layered paint and immersive scale of the Water Lilies evoke comparisons to artists like Jackson Pollock, where the painting becomes a world in itself. This marks a shift in art history where the conversation moves from the artist and their subject to a dialogue between the artist and the canvas itself. This intimate engagement is evident in Monet's Water Lilies.