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“I shall stay here regardless, and if those barbarians wish to kill me, I shall die among my canvases, in front of my life’s work.”
- Claude Monet
This was Claude Monet, the eminent French impressionist who had painted almost 250 water lilies in the last three decades of his life, i.e., (1890s to 1926). It took him decades to paint the whole series of divine blooms, including ‘Le Bassin aux Nymphéas’, and ‘Nymphéas en Fleur’ (1914-17), etc. that changed the whole perspective of nature painting. When he said the above lines, he was some 30 miles away from the battlefield and went on giving the world untimely masterpieces. Can anyone imagine the turmoil and angst of a painter who stood against the mindless destruction of World War I and tried to respond to the hapless violence with a series of water lilies painting from his beloved garden pond in Giverny, France?
It’s no surprise that Monet’s lilies are the most expensive and iconic creations from the Impressionist era along with Van Gogh’s masterpieces like the 'Sunflowers' or the 'Starry Night'. The lilies took the art world by storm and are still an enigma. Let us find out some of the curious facts about the water paintings by Claude Monet that fetched more than $100 million at the Sotheby’s impressionist and modern art sale and were the head-turners at Christie’s! So, what was all the stir behind it?
1. Monet Painted 250 Oil Paintings of Water Lilies in His Last Years
Claude Monet was the vanguard and the brain behind the impressionist art movement. The lilies were painted mostly from his beautiful garden pond in Giverny during the last few decades of his lifetime (1840-1926). The 250 jaw-dropping oil paintings have the pond, aquatic plants, the Japanese-inspired footbridge, and splendid lilies painted with his inner vision as his eyesight was affected by that time. They showed a modern impressionist painter’s take on nature and how he captured the element of light in nature paintings in a plein air backdrop.
In 1883, after he moved to Giverny, his native place in France, Monet devoted himself to painting outdoors. He created a floral heaven of lilies creating a water pond that became a world of his inspiration till he died. He painted in varied light conditions, during daytime, evening, and through the entire day. By then he had shifted his attention from a single scenery to painting a series of the same sort of subjects like the ‘Poplars,’ ‘Haystacks,’ etc.
2. Water Lilies were Inspired by the Japanese Art and Aesthetics
In those times in Europe, the Japanese woodblock prints or the Ukiyo-e prints became popular and Monet was greatly influenced by the style and technique. The use of flat areas of colors, abstractions, the unfamiliar look and feel of the flowy colors, the loose brushstrokes, and perspectives deeply moved him to create his masterpieces. Thus, he moved from the previous tradition of putting depth in paintings, instead using more flat surfaces and asymmetrical blooms that made his creations modern and eternal. The Japanese philosophy and art perspectives had been a source of inspiration when he painted the Japanese-style footbridge in some of the lily paintings, which showed the perfect balance and appreciation of simple and beautiful things in nature, bonded with eternity.
3. The Abstraction of Color was Created by his Failing Eyesight: Monet Eliminated the Sky
Monet’s Lilies dominated most of his life’s later years that took off from 1899 and he went on painting the remarkable water pond and lilies until 1926. As his eyesight was failing him and he developed cataracts, he continued with loose strokes, warm hues, and intense colors focusing only on the surface of the water, eliminating the sky and other natural elements. It was an abstraction to shift the focus of the viewers from a realistic portrayal of the pond to an atmospheric and ethereal sensation that was built around the floating lilies on the surface. Nothing else mattered.
4. Water Lilies were Inspired by the Bloodshed and Violence of the First World War
Amidst the war and bloodshed Claude Monet created his most iconic works of soft and suave lilies that have been a cornerstone of the impressionist art movement. Isn’t this incredible to paint like a possessed? The abstraction and the deviation from intense and dramatic nature portrayals were revolutionary. It intrigues a viewer to watch the simple joy and unpretentious charm of the soft lilies that were painted as a direct response to the gruesome horror of the war! One cannot help but think about his reactions when he stood outdoors to paint his iconic creations during the summer of 1914, when thousands of French soldiers were facing a brutal fate in the trenches, and the wrath and terror coming closer to the common men like himself.
5. Newfound Techniques and Experimentation with Colors to Paint the Pond
It gives a viewer an immense sense of peace while watching Monet paintings water lilies, to feel how engrossed he was with his ultimate experimentation with light and mixing of colors. He put more emphasis on the spread of colors, to apply his newly devised forms rather than exploring intricate details or depth of the creations. He tried to create a dreamy kind of backdrop with the use of green, blue, and purple as the dominating color scheme to retain the lightness of the landscape. He let the colors bleed and mix with the background, diffusing and blurring the edges of reflection so that they flow naturally, creating an ethereal charm in the scenery.
His palette mostly consisted of a huge spectrum of vibrant bold to soft pastel hues, playing together and creating a feel of movement with loose and layered brushstrokes. It helped him to create different light conditions and variations in his paintings, depicting the surface of the water and retaining the reflections. He rarely showed the sky in these paintings, that was the striking part of the series! He intentionally missed the conventional techniques of landscape painting: portraying the foreground, middle, and background.
6. Monet was Obsessed with Light and the Changing Reflections on Water
It is extremely gratifying to watch the Monet lilies, 250 paintings centered around light and its casting shadows from day to dusk, from summer to spring on the surface of water. He captured the changing lights vividly, as light was the most decisive factor in his paintings. The fleeting shadows were permanent as Monet depicted the transient and ever-changing dynamics of nature and light through the reflections. It was almost like an obsession to paint the blooms in changing light conditions, to remind us how impermanent is everything around us like the fleeting shadows, and our futile efforts to hold on to everything!
7. Inspiration for Later Modern Art Forms like Abstract Expressionism
These works can well be categorized as abstract impressionism because they were more than mere impressions of the real world. His last phase of creation was more focused on the metaphysical truths that pushed the boundaries of his art to intellectual and abstract realms. And, this was the foundation for the abstract expressionism that inspired painters like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, with their frenzied lines, riot of colors, formless and fathomless impressions. The series of water lilies has had a profound effect on their style and form. It was more of a spiritual and immersive experience rather than a mere nature painting.
8. Grandes Décorations: Monet Gifted 10 Years of His Work to France
Inspired by the techniques and the color scheme of the passionate lilies, Monet started creating 22 massive murals (Grandes Décorations) of his beloved pond to be featured on the walls. It was a crazy thing to do in his 70s! Monet gifted his work to the French state to celebrate the victory of France. It’s a pleasure to watch his iconic murals in L’Orangerie Museum in Paris. If someone stands in the middle of the oval room, they will feel engulfed by the relaxing lilies and the water pond, which took almost 10 years to complete. The mural canvases were as huge as 91 meters long, and despite his approaching blindness, he managed to paint them exquisitely. They are the permanent gifts from the greatest and the most sellable impressionist painter of all time.
Conclusion:
Monet Transformed a Simple Nature Scene to an Eternal Experience
The magic of blue, purple, and green has forever lived on the landscape of the Monet's water lilies as he wanted to capture the moving shafts of lights on the calm water and the divine blooms. He tried to reestablish a connection with nature that is not without, but which is internal and sentimental. Like Jean-Auguste Renoir or Camille Pissaro, Monet tried to get away with the compulsive portrayal of landscape and nature, moving from the genre of realism to abstract modernism. It mattered most what he felt more than what he had seen in the troubled socio-political scenario. That is how he created immortal and timeless classics with his water pond series as lilies also epitomize the concept of rebirth and eternity.
By transcending the real subject, these reflections of water-themed paintings reaffirm the realm of human experience through perception, toeing the intricate line of real and metaphysical, stability and impermanence. That quite sums up why his ‘Nymphéas en Fleur’ (1914-17) stole all the gazes at the prestigious Christie’s auction!
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