I’m not sure what it is about these paintings that makes me love them so much. Maybe it’s their monumental scale: they’re absolutely huge, taking up entire walls in a specially designed gallery. This means that the brushstrokes are broad and the details are large. You can go right up to the painting and see the thick globs of paint left by Monet himself. Maybe that’s what it is about the Water Lilies: they let you see right into Monet’s soul more than any of his other paintings.
Monet created hundreds of water lily paintings toward the end of his life. He spent his last thirty years in his beautiful house and gardens at Giverny, and there the flowers on his backyard pond became his favorite subjects. He wrote to a friend, “These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession.” At that point he was well into his old age, and he was rapidly losing his eyesight to cataracts. This would explain the larger scale and brushstrokes of the water lilies. Monet had to create bigger paintings to be able to see properly, and he used his whole body to paint rather than just his wrists.
The water lilies also seem to express the peace and repose Monet searched for in his later years. Life treated him harshly at the end. In addition to his physical problems, he also suffered from the death of his wife, the insanity and eventual death of his first son, and the military service of his second son in World War I. In honor of his son and those who lost their lives during the war, he promised to create a special series of paintings for the French State. When old age interfered, he confessed to his friend Georges Clemenceau, the Prime Minister, that he did not believe he could continue. Clemenceau had little pity for the artist, telling him, “I don’t care how old, how exhausted you are and whether you are an artist or not, you have no right to break your word of honour, especially when it was given to France.” After undergoing eye surgery, Monet was able to keep his promise and finish the paintings, and they were placed on display at the Orangerie. Today they can be seen even more beautifully, thanks to a recent remodel of the museum allowing natural light in.
Since the Water Lilies are often described as being “lyrical,” I was interested to learn that my favorite painter inspired my favorite composer, Claude Debussy. I can see in Monet’s work what I hear in Debussy’s: peace, reflection, repose – the natural, beautiful antithesis of the insanity of war. Even Disney seems to have taken a cue from Monet in their interpretation of Clair de Lune, but I prefer the classic piano version.
