8. Claude Oscar Monet, French, 1840-1926. Water Lilies, c. 1919-20. Oil on canvas, 200.6 x 425.3 cm. John L. Severance Fund, 1960.81

This canvas is one of several depictions of flowers in Claude Monet's garden, called "water and reflection landscapes" by the artist. Unlike traditional landscape paintings, there is no horizon line to orient the viewer toward the ground and sky. Instead, the sky and clouds are suggested only as reflections in the water. As a result, it seems as though the flat surface of the water has been tipped up to correspond with the flat surface of the canvas, creating a two-dimensional design from a three-dimensional scene. Though in his previous works Monet's subjects were still recognizable, the water lilies in this painting have dissolved into mere splashes of paint. This abstract quality in Water Lilies may indicate the influence of modern artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, Monet's own natural progression to a less naturalistic style, and the effect of his failing eyesight. All these factors contributed to the emphasis on atmosphere rather than solid, delineated form.

At the age of 43, Monet settled in Giverny, a small village on the Seine about 40 miles from Paris. During this period, he gained the financial success that had eluded him earlier in his career. In 1890 he bought the house he had been renting at Giverny and added a large pond and Japanese bridge, creating the water garden captured in his paintings. Monet intended his water lilies to be part of a continuous series of large paintings that would give the viewer the effect of walking through his garden. In fact, the museum's painting is part of a series of three paintings; a second panel is located in St. Louis, the third in Kansas City. He used very large unframed canvases and allowed the forms of the lilies to overlap the edges to emphasize the continuity of the series.

In this painting, the uneven and vibrant surface of the canvas is animated by the play of light and shadow. Although the painting has a spontaneous, free appearance, it should be remembered that Monet did plan and rework his canvases. He carefully built up the textured layers of the surface and meticulously planned and coordinated the colors and shapes of the plants and flowers in his garden in order to paint them.

In 1888 Monet began painting the same subject over and over in varying weather conditions and at different hours of the day. We really owe his serial paintings to his fascination with light and color. Whether his paintings contained haystacks, cathedrals, poplar trees, or water lilies, Monet was ultimately concerned with capturing light and color in his works rather than with the motif. His scrupulous observation of nature and light was admired by many artists, including Paul Cézanne, who described Monet as "only an eye, but what a magnificent eye it is."

Vivian Kung and Patricia Richmond
Teacher Resource Center
Department of Education and Public Programs

© 1997 The Cleveland Museum of Art