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Mad Enchantment - Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies
Claude Monet's water lily paintings are among the most iconic and beloved works of art of the past century. Yet these entrancing images were created at a time of terrible private turmoil and sadness for the artist. The dramatic history behind these paintings is little known. Ross King's Mad Enchantment tells the full story for the first time and, in the process, presents a compelling and original portrait of one of our most popular and cherished artists.
By the outbreak of war in 1914, Monet, then in his mid-seventies, was one of the world's most famous and successful painters, with a large house in the country, a fleet of automobiles and a colossal reputation. However, he had virtually given up painting following the death of his wife Alice in 1911 and the onset of blindness a year later. Nonetheless, it was during this period of sorrow, ill health and creative uncertainty that - as the guns roared on the Western Front - he began the most demanding and innovative paintings he had ever attempted. Encouraged by close friends such as Georges Clemenceau, France's dauntless prime minister, Monet would work on these magnificent paintings throughout the war years and then for the rest of his life. So obsessed with his monumental task that the village barber was summoned to clip his hair as he worked beside his pond, he covered hundreds of yards of canvas with shimmering layers of pigment. As his ambitions expanded with his paintings, he began planning what he intended to be his legacy to the the Musée Claude Monet in the Orangerie in Paris.
Drawing on letters and memoirs and focusing on this remarkable period in the artist's life, Mad Enchantment gives an intimate portrayal of Claude Monet in all his tumultuous complexity, and firmly places his water lily paintings among the greatest achievements in the history of art.
By the outbreak of war in 1914, Monet, then in his mid-seventies, was one of the world's most famous and successful painters, with a large house in the country, a fleet of automobiles and a colossal reputation. However, he had virtually given up painting following the death of his wife Alice in 1911 and the onset of blindness a year later. Nonetheless, it was during this period of sorrow, ill health and creative uncertainty that - as the guns roared on the Western Front - he began the most demanding and innovative paintings he had ever attempted. Encouraged by close friends such as Georges Clemenceau, France's dauntless prime minister, Monet would work on these magnificent paintings throughout the war years and then for the rest of his life. So obsessed with his monumental task that the village barber was summoned to clip his hair as he worked beside his pond, he covered hundreds of yards of canvas with shimmering layers of pigment. As his ambitions expanded with his paintings, he began planning what he intended to be his legacy to the the Musée Claude Monet in the Orangerie in Paris.
Drawing on letters and memoirs and focusing on this remarkable period in the artist's life, Mad Enchantment gives an intimate portrayal of Claude Monet in all his tumultuous complexity, and firmly places his water lily paintings among the greatest achievements in the history of art.
416 pages, Paperback
First published September 6, 2016
429 people are currently reading
5160 people want to read
About the author
Ross King
64 books724 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Ross King (born July 16, 1962) is a Canadian novelist and non-fiction writer. He began his career by writing two works of historical fiction in the 1990s, later turning to non-fiction, and has since written several critically acclaimed and best-selling historical works.
King was born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada and was raised in the nearby village of North Portal. He received his undergraduate university education at the University of Regina, where in 1984 he completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in English Literature. Continuing his studies at the University of Regina, he received a Master of Arts degree in 1986 upon completing a thesis on the poet T.S. Eliot. Later he achieved a Ph.D. from York University in Toronto (1992), where he specialized eighteenth-century English literature.
King moved to England to take up a position as a post-doctoral research fellow at University College, London. It was at this time that he began writing his first novel.
For Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, King was nominated in 2003 for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Brunelleschi’s Dome was on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle, and was the recipient of several awards including the 2000 Book Sense Nonfiction Book of the Year.
He lectures frequently in both Europe and North America, and has given guided tours of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
King currently lives in Woodstock, England with his wife Melanie
Ross King (born July 16, 1962) is a Canadian novelist and non-fiction writer. He began his career by writing two works of historical fiction in the 1990s, later turning to non-fiction, and has since written several critically acclaimed and best-selling historical works.
King was born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada and was raised in the nearby village of North Portal. He received his undergraduate university education at the University of Regina, where in 1984 he completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in English Literature. Continuing his studies at the University of Regina, he received a Master of Arts degree in 1986 upon completing a thesis on the poet T.S. Eliot. Later he achieved a Ph.D. from York University in Toronto (1992), where he specialized eighteenth-century English literature.
King moved to England to take up a position as a post-doctoral research fellow at University College, London. It was at this time that he began writing his first novel.
For Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, King was nominated in 2003 for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Brunelleschi’s Dome was on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle, and was the recipient of several awards including the 2000 Book Sense Nonfiction Book of the Year.
He lectures frequently in both Europe and North America, and has given guided tours of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
King currently lives in Woodstock, England with his wife Melanie
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January 6, 2019
”It is difficult to separate discussions of an artist’s ‘late work’ from romantic associations of blind seers offering up unutterable visions from beyond the threshold, or of old men raging against the dying of the light. But it is undeniable that as his eye filmed over and his vision slowly dimmed, Monet, ‘who caught and sang the sun in flight,’ focused ever more intently on the fleeting rays of light that he had always chased and cherished.”
Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet
Claude Monet, along with the artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille, started a new movement of painting that eventually was known as Impressionism. The name was taken from Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise and was meant as a derogatory term. Three other artists joined their band of independent artists: Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, and Armand Guillaumin. They wanted to paint in the outdoors and take advantage of the spontaneity and vibrant colors of nature. They, in particular Monet, wanted to show paintings that went beyond just what the eye could readily see. Monet had very acute vision. ”’He sees differently from the rest of humanity,’speculating that he was acutely sensitive to colors at the ultra-violent end of the spectrum.”
Later in life, that spectacular vision of his was shrouded with cataracts. He had several painful surgeries that restored some of his vision, but his sight never fully recovered. Regardless, he continued to paint until the darkness that only death can bring snuffed the last light out of those remarkable eyes. Those eyes that could see and share so much that we cannot see.
I’m convinced he was a genius.
It wasn’t just his remarkable eyesight, but also the tantrums he threw when he couldn’t quite master on canvas what he saw in his eye. Every time he started a new painting, he attempted to make not a painting that was a perceived masterpiece to other people, but a masterpiece that captured the details exactly as he saw them. He would use up to twelve layers of paint in an attempt to recreate the perfect ripple or glimmer or splash of color. When displeased, he would slash canvases and kick holes in them with his feet. Geniuses throw the best fits just read about the epic outbursts of Mozart or Beethoven or Steve Jobs.
Monet was angry at himself, at his human limitations.
His best friend, the warrior French politician Georges Clemenceau, if he were around during one of these explosions, would brave the wrath of the painter and grab paintings out of the reach of the vengeful artist. At times, Monet did feel like he was at war with his canvases. I refer to Clemenceau as a warrior because he fought twenty-two duels and survived them all. He also took on the bureaucracy of the French government and managed to tame them and focus them long enough to win WW1 by the sheer force of his will.
Monet in his garden.
Clemenceau and Monet were an odd match for friendship if one only looks at the surface details of who they are, but they were both accomplished in their fields. At times, they were the very best in their fields, and that level of achievement sometimes makes it difficult to find people one can consider an equal, a confidant who could truly understand the frustrations of being perfectionists.
Monet did for water lilies what Vincent Van Gogh did for sunflowers. His gardens in Giverny were a marvel, nestled into a town that was famous for its fairytale beauty. He built a house festooned with bright, bold colors. It was always hard to pry him away from his home, his studio. How wonderful that he found the place he most wanted to be, and it took a great temptation to get him even to go to Paris for an exhibition of his work.
Monet’s dining room at Giverny. The vibrant yellow became known as Monet Yellow.
There are always strange nuances that I discover when I read a biography of any person. Monet may have never been the Monet who paints water lilies if his second wife Alice had not put her foot down about female models. It was either the models or her. Monet decided it was easier to work on landscapes and leave the nude models to his fellow artists. What some critics will say is that ghost feminine shapes in the leaves can be spied in most of his paintings. Are they seeing what they want to see or was Monet craftly adding the beauty of women in the swirls of his paint? Paintings can be interpreted in a number of ways, the same way stories can change meaning depending upon who reads them.
I’ve read several Ross King books and will read many more. He fills gaps in my knowledge and makes the subject of his book, Brunelleschi's Dome or Machiavelli or Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci, come alive, whether the subject be made of stone, paint, or flesh. Highly Recommended!
I elected to buy the British edition of this book because the book itself is a work of art. They printed one of Monet’s waterlily paintings on the canvas boards, and instead of a dust wrapper, they chose to put an elegant belly band around the book. The band allows more of the beautiful boards to show. It is nice to see a publisher putting the extra effort into improving the reading experience.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet
Claude Monet, along with the artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille, started a new movement of painting that eventually was known as Impressionism. The name was taken from Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise and was meant as a derogatory term. Three other artists joined their band of independent artists: Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, and Armand Guillaumin. They wanted to paint in the outdoors and take advantage of the spontaneity and vibrant colors of nature. They, in particular Monet, wanted to show paintings that went beyond just what the eye could readily see. Monet had very acute vision. ”’He sees differently from the rest of humanity,’speculating that he was acutely sensitive to colors at the ultra-violent end of the spectrum.”
Later in life, that spectacular vision of his was shrouded with cataracts. He had several painful surgeries that restored some of his vision, but his sight never fully recovered. Regardless, he continued to paint until the darkness that only death can bring snuffed the last light out of those remarkable eyes. Those eyes that could see and share so much that we cannot see.
I’m convinced he was a genius.
It wasn’t just his remarkable eyesight, but also the tantrums he threw when he couldn’t quite master on canvas what he saw in his eye. Every time he started a new painting, he attempted to make not a painting that was a perceived masterpiece to other people, but a masterpiece that captured the details exactly as he saw them. He would use up to twelve layers of paint in an attempt to recreate the perfect ripple or glimmer or splash of color. When displeased, he would slash canvases and kick holes in them with his feet. Geniuses throw the best fits just read about the epic outbursts of Mozart or Beethoven or Steve Jobs.
Monet was angry at himself, at his human limitations.
His best friend, the warrior French politician Georges Clemenceau, if he were around during one of these explosions, would brave the wrath of the painter and grab paintings out of the reach of the vengeful artist. At times, Monet did feel like he was at war with his canvases. I refer to Clemenceau as a warrior because he fought twenty-two duels and survived them all. He also took on the bureaucracy of the French government and managed to tame them and focus them long enough to win WW1 by the sheer force of his will.
Monet in his garden.
Clemenceau and Monet were an odd match for friendship if one only looks at the surface details of who they are, but they were both accomplished in their fields. At times, they were the very best in their fields, and that level of achievement sometimes makes it difficult to find people one can consider an equal, a confidant who could truly understand the frustrations of being perfectionists.
Monet did for water lilies what Vincent Van Gogh did for sunflowers. His gardens in Giverny were a marvel, nestled into a town that was famous for its fairytale beauty. He built a house festooned with bright, bold colors. It was always hard to pry him away from his home, his studio. How wonderful that he found the place he most wanted to be, and it took a great temptation to get him even to go to Paris for an exhibition of his work.
Monet’s dining room at Giverny. The vibrant yellow became known as Monet Yellow.
There are always strange nuances that I discover when I read a biography of any person. Monet may have never been the Monet who paints water lilies if his second wife Alice had not put her foot down about female models. It was either the models or her. Monet decided it was easier to work on landscapes and leave the nude models to his fellow artists. What some critics will say is that ghost feminine shapes in the leaves can be spied in most of his paintings. Are they seeing what they want to see or was Monet craftly adding the beauty of women in the swirls of his paint? Paintings can be interpreted in a number of ways, the same way stories can change meaning depending upon who reads them.
I’ve read several Ross King books and will read many more. He fills gaps in my knowledge and makes the subject of his book, Brunelleschi's Dome or Machiavelli or Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci, come alive, whether the subject be made of stone, paint, or flesh. Highly Recommended!
I elected to buy the British edition of this book because the book itself is a work of art. They printed one of Monet’s waterlily paintings on the canvas boards, and instead of a dust wrapper, they chose to put an elegant belly band around the book. The band allows more of the beautiful boards to show. It is nice to see a publisher putting the extra effort into improving the reading experience.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
May 21, 2019
King writes about the last years of the life on Claude Monet (1840-1926). I know very little about Monet and his paintings. All my education has been in the area of science. Now that I am older and retired, I am attempting to expand my knowledge.
As a World War One history buff, I was most interested in the part about World War One in France. I learned a different viewpoint of the effects of the War. I found how various artists helped during the war from paintings of battles to the discovery of camouflage use by Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola. Artists were employed to paint camouflage netting and canvas, as well as designing new camouflage uniforms for the French Army. The world went through a significant social change after the War and the book provides a glimpse into the effect on Monet. I found the friendship with Georges Clemenceau interesting. The book is well written. It was written so that a person that has no knowledge of art could understand.
I read this as an e-book downloaded from Amazon to my Kindle app on my iPad. The book is 416 pages. It was published in 2016.
As a World War One history buff, I was most interested in the part about World War One in France. I learned a different viewpoint of the effects of the War. I found how various artists helped during the war from paintings of battles to the discovery of camouflage use by Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola. Artists were employed to paint camouflage netting and canvas, as well as designing new camouflage uniforms for the French Army. The world went through a significant social change after the War and the book provides a glimpse into the effect on Monet. I found the friendship with Georges Clemenceau interesting. The book is well written. It was written so that a person that has no knowledge of art could understand.
I read this as an e-book downloaded from Amazon to my Kindle app on my iPad. The book is 416 pages. It was published in 2016.
May 28, 2017
May I first suggest that you carefully read the book description at Good Reads? It is accurate.
What made the book click for me? The emotional strain of Monet’s last twelve years felt palpable as I read this book. I completely empathized with his emotional turmoil. His loss of vision coupled with his own high expectations must have been excruciatingly difficult to bear. That he became irascible and impossible to deal with feels completely understandable. The author makes the last years of Monet’s life feel intimate and very real. I came to understand Monet at the end of his life, and that is when you draw up for yourself what is important. Monet’s personality becomes tangible.
The long friendship between Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) and Georges Clémenceau (1841 – 1929) is realistically and movingly drawn. Clémenceau was the Prime Minister of France during the last year of the First World War and until January 20, 1920, with President Raymond Poincaré. He served an earlier term as prime minister but this is not covered in the book. The book covers the years 1914- 1926, the last twelve years of Monet’s life. Clémenceau died three years later. Historical details, both about artists of the period and the war as well as the subsequent difficulties surrounding the Treaty of Versailles are covered. History is an essential part of the events because it shaped the life of Clémenceau and thus his relationship with Monet. Don’t read this book if history bores you. For me, Clémenceau is no longer merely a figurehead, but someone I know. Monet is no longer merely an artist in a book, but a person whom I have better come to understand.
Before reading this book, I knew that Monet’s Lilies were housed in the Parisian Musée de l’Orangerie, where I saw them. This book focuses on how the paintings came to be and how they came to be placed there. This is a fascinating story with many twists and turns. Kojiro Matsukata, the first president Kawasaki Dockyards, sought to purchase them for the Sheer Pleasure Fine Arts Museum in Japan!
The book is well researched, detailed and thorough. Both faults and strengths are pointed out. Many quotes are given. The quotes put meat on the bones of those we encounter.
Anyone picking up this book will probably already know if they love impressionist art or not, and if so why. If you do, it is always fun to hear how others describe it. It is always fun to know a little bit more about the artists who were at its source, who gave it acclaim and who despised it.
If you have not been to Monet’s house and garden in Giverny, France, just outside Paris, put it high up on your list of places that must be seen. Today it is a museum. In 1883 it was where Monet went with his two children, Michel and Jean, after his first wife Camille died. In 1892 he married Alice Hoschedé, after her own estranged husband died. Her six children became as his own. One hears much about the stepdaughter, Blanche Hoschedé. She is 48 years old in 1914 as the events in this memoir unfold. She was the one child to have an artistic bent, and she was devoted to her stepfather. Clémenceau called her ‘The Blue Angel. Enough! Read the book if you want to know more.
This book is filled with French names, places and expressions. Most are translated. The narrator of this audiobook, Joel Richards, does not know French. While the English lines are simple to follow, it is totally wrong to pick someone not competent in French to read this book. This explains why I have given the narration one star.
If you are interested in other books by Ross King, check out The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism. I gave it three stars.
What made the book click for me? The emotional strain of Monet’s last twelve years felt palpable as I read this book. I completely empathized with his emotional turmoil. His loss of vision coupled with his own high expectations must have been excruciatingly difficult to bear. That he became irascible and impossible to deal with feels completely understandable. The author makes the last years of Monet’s life feel intimate and very real. I came to understand Monet at the end of his life, and that is when you draw up for yourself what is important. Monet’s personality becomes tangible.
The long friendship between Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) and Georges Clémenceau (1841 – 1929) is realistically and movingly drawn. Clémenceau was the Prime Minister of France during the last year of the First World War and until January 20, 1920, with President Raymond Poincaré. He served an earlier term as prime minister but this is not covered in the book. The book covers the years 1914- 1926, the last twelve years of Monet’s life. Clémenceau died three years later. Historical details, both about artists of the period and the war as well as the subsequent difficulties surrounding the Treaty of Versailles are covered. History is an essential part of the events because it shaped the life of Clémenceau and thus his relationship with Monet. Don’t read this book if history bores you. For me, Clémenceau is no longer merely a figurehead, but someone I know. Monet is no longer merely an artist in a book, but a person whom I have better come to understand.
Before reading this book, I knew that Monet’s Lilies were housed in the Parisian Musée de l’Orangerie, where I saw them. This book focuses on how the paintings came to be and how they came to be placed there. This is a fascinating story with many twists and turns. Kojiro Matsukata, the first president Kawasaki Dockyards, sought to purchase them for the Sheer Pleasure Fine Arts Museum in Japan!
The book is well researched, detailed and thorough. Both faults and strengths are pointed out. Many quotes are given. The quotes put meat on the bones of those we encounter.
Anyone picking up this book will probably already know if they love impressionist art or not, and if so why. If you do, it is always fun to hear how others describe it. It is always fun to know a little bit more about the artists who were at its source, who gave it acclaim and who despised it.
If you have not been to Monet’s house and garden in Giverny, France, just outside Paris, put it high up on your list of places that must be seen. Today it is a museum. In 1883 it was where Monet went with his two children, Michel and Jean, after his first wife Camille died. In 1892 he married Alice Hoschedé, after her own estranged husband died. Her six children became as his own. One hears much about the stepdaughter, Blanche Hoschedé. She is 48 years old in 1914 as the events in this memoir unfold. She was the one child to have an artistic bent, and she was devoted to her stepfather. Clémenceau called her ‘The Blue Angel. Enough! Read the book if you want to know more.
This book is filled with French names, places and expressions. Most are translated. The narrator of this audiobook, Joel Richards, does not know French. While the English lines are simple to follow, it is totally wrong to pick someone not competent in French to read this book. This explains why I have given the narration one star.
If you are interested in other books by Ross King, check out The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism. I gave it three stars.
December 12, 2016
BOTW
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08492fv
Oh blimey, this should have sent me into raptures, and it really would have, if I hadn't, lifelongingly? (heh!) acquainted myself, through pure love, to Monet.The saddest part is that no identifiable and visible part that let the side down - it was just dead throughout, which of course, Monet, and his lilied gift, could never, ever be.
September 4, 2016
4.5This book has much more story than Monet. It centers around him, his work, his family his struggles, but it cover so much more. The first world war is prominent from the early whispers of war to the horrible realities of it. Monet, his famous artist friends, journalists, politicians and the community around him he so loved withered, many died. I learned many interesting details about the war in France from a new perspective, it was fascinating and heartbreaking.
Monet was a off centered man. His quirks had quirks when it came to his paintings and his garden. Luckily for the world his quirks fed his genius. This man was an introvert, loyal to his few friends and family. Volatile and moody he destroyed hundreds of paintings in his outrages. Time held him and the changes drove his paintings.There would be dozens of easels set up along his garden capturing the differences, at seven minute intervals. The need to catch each shadow, change of color, wind direction and seasonal changes.
I learned so much from this story. i learned about the lives of people in France during WW1 the changes, hardships, and suffering as well as the hope and fight for happiness. It is not a book I could read quickly I read it in small bits then found myself thinking about the moments I discovered.
I had no interest in Monet before this. I purchased a puzzle of his water lily painting then say then saw this book offered and thought, why not ? I finished my very difficult puzzle with the help of my adult children while sharing stories about the book with them. History as it should be written, interesting with personal stories is so interesting.
Monet was a off centered man. His quirks had quirks when it came to his paintings and his garden. Luckily for the world his quirks fed his genius. This man was an introvert, loyal to his few friends and family. Volatile and moody he destroyed hundreds of paintings in his outrages. Time held him and the changes drove his paintings.There would be dozens of easels set up along his garden capturing the differences, at seven minute intervals. The need to catch each shadow, change of color, wind direction and seasonal changes.
I learned so much from this story. i learned about the lives of people in France during WW1 the changes, hardships, and suffering as well as the hope and fight for happiness. It is not a book I could read quickly I read it in small bits then found myself thinking about the moments I discovered.
I had no interest in Monet before this. I purchased a puzzle of his water lily painting then say then saw this book offered and thought, why not ? I finished my very difficult puzzle with the help of my adult children while sharing stories about the book with them. History as it should be written, interesting with personal stories is so interesting.
June 29, 2017
this was a book regarding a topic that while I'm very interested in i haven't read so much about it in ever. That being said I have always enjoyed Monet's work specially "water lillies" . This book is not about art or the techniques used by Monet ..rather its about the artist himself and his last years of artistic work...that happens to correlate to his greatest most prolific years of artistic output..In this book you get a glimpse of the artistic scene in France at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, you also see how French art was affected by the onset of WWI ......and you learn that although artist can be difficult , we must learn not to pass judgement on the artist but rather in their work....Monet may had had a complex personality towards his old age and that might have complicated his relationships with friends, patrons and the artistic scene but we must also recognize that it was then that he created his greatest works....Read this book if you are an art lover or a Monet aficionado .
May 30, 2016
"Monet's paintings captured nature's mix of the ephemeral and the eternal, its magnitude and its minutiae, its glittering appearance and its dizzingly fathomless depths."
It's easy to love Monet's paintings, and this book even lays out theories that his style thrust upon its viewers a "soothing effect on both the eye and brain, [with] Monet himself as le peintre du bonheur (the painter of happiness)."
Yet, it was not always the case with his critics, and near the book's end, Author Ross King details that it was the Abstract Expressionists, painters such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, many years later who reinvigorated a love for Monet. Stunning now to think that Monet and the Impressionists might have been lost to history.
This book covers a very specific time period in Claude Monet's life. It's not a biography of his whole life, but instead covers the body of work (the water lily paintings of Giverney) that was his magnum opus. This time frame covered World War I, and with Georges Clemenceau one of Monet's greatest champions, readers are taken well into the Great War's effect on France, as well as Monet's continuing work.
This is a delightful book, as engaging as fiction, with wonderful photographs of the characters and scenery that populated Monet's life in his last years, as well as some heart-wrenching ones, of Verdun, for example, that encapsulate the horrors of the war. The book helps readers understand the very personal toll that painting took on Monet, and the challenges he faced as he worked (his perfectionism in creating the water lily series, his failing health, the loss of friends, and so on).
Ultimately, however, this is a book filled with joy and understanding. It reaches deep into the painter's life and work and allows his admirers to expand their appreciation of Monet's art, as well as for those who surrounded Monet and never let the artist succumb to his own feelings of inadequacy when it came to creating some of the most beautiful art for the ages.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Books and Good Reads for this ARC.
It's easy to love Monet's paintings, and this book even lays out theories that his style thrust upon its viewers a "soothing effect on both the eye and brain, [with] Monet himself as le peintre du bonheur (the painter of happiness)."
Yet, it was not always the case with his critics, and near the book's end, Author Ross King details that it was the Abstract Expressionists, painters such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, many years later who reinvigorated a love for Monet. Stunning now to think that Monet and the Impressionists might have been lost to history.
This book covers a very specific time period in Claude Monet's life. It's not a biography of his whole life, but instead covers the body of work (the water lily paintings of Giverney) that was his magnum opus. This time frame covered World War I, and with Georges Clemenceau one of Monet's greatest champions, readers are taken well into the Great War's effect on France, as well as Monet's continuing work.
This is a delightful book, as engaging as fiction, with wonderful photographs of the characters and scenery that populated Monet's life in his last years, as well as some heart-wrenching ones, of Verdun, for example, that encapsulate the horrors of the war. The book helps readers understand the very personal toll that painting took on Monet, and the challenges he faced as he worked (his perfectionism in creating the water lily series, his failing health, the loss of friends, and so on).
Ultimately, however, this is a book filled with joy and understanding. It reaches deep into the painter's life and work and allows his admirers to expand their appreciation of Monet's art, as well as for those who surrounded Monet and never let the artist succumb to his own feelings of inadequacy when it came to creating some of the most beautiful art for the ages.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Books and Good Reads for this ARC.
December 30, 2016
Proof positive that you don't have to be a nice person to be a great artist.
Oh, those temperamental artists! shouts the inner voice. In this case, Ross King renders a laudable biography of a slice of Monet's life, overflowing with the jagged edge of the artist's darker side. King convinces me, whether intentionally so or not, that I would not have liked Monet the Man: a self-indulgent, petulant, fractious old crank who swanned around like some troll-like prima donna. The flip side is, I would have loved Monet the Artist: I would have gladly spent all my waking hours gazing at the man at work and absorbing, with all my senses, his "mad enchantment".
I loved this book -- and hated it -- all at once.
I was disappointed to the extreme by the poor quality of the paper and the photographs/plates. To an artist, the senses are paramount: the importance of tactility, of optics, is everything. This book is as appealing as a canvas sack filled with last year's potatoes.
On visuals alone, I struggled with myself to even pick it up -- and in the end I opted to get it through the library rather than pay $39.95 Canadian for it, which is something I would have gladly done had it been of better quality. I'm surprised that the publishers chose such a cheap and tawdry venue for an important biography of an artist. Weren't they paying attention in Art 101?
For that alone, it barely scratches to a 3. It would have been a 5 otherwise.
Note to publishers: Don't disappoint temperamental artists -- they're so unpredictable!
Oh, those temperamental artists! shouts the inner voice. In this case, Ross King renders a laudable biography of a slice of Monet's life, overflowing with the jagged edge of the artist's darker side. King convinces me, whether intentionally so or not, that I would not have liked Monet the Man: a self-indulgent, petulant, fractious old crank who swanned around like some troll-like prima donna. The flip side is, I would have loved Monet the Artist: I would have gladly spent all my waking hours gazing at the man at work and absorbing, with all my senses, his "mad enchantment".
I loved this book -- and hated it -- all at once.
I was disappointed to the extreme by the poor quality of the paper and the photographs/plates. To an artist, the senses are paramount: the importance of tactility, of optics, is everything. This book is as appealing as a canvas sack filled with last year's potatoes.
On visuals alone, I struggled with myself to even pick it up -- and in the end I opted to get it through the library rather than pay $39.95 Canadian for it, which is something I would have gladly done had it been of better quality. I'm surprised that the publishers chose such a cheap and tawdry venue for an important biography of an artist. Weren't they paying attention in Art 101?
For that alone, it barely scratches to a 3. It would have been a 5 otherwise.
Note to publishers: Don't disappoint temperamental artists -- they're so unpredictable!
April 10, 2017
Just as the title suggests, Mad Enchantment is about Claude Monet's passion for water lilies and his increasingly difficult personality towards the end of his life as his health deteriorated and his mind likewise suffered depression as he believed he could no longer see colors and thus, could no longer paint. Ross King's writing is as excellent as usual. I want to stress that his books are not formal analysis of paintings, but stories of artists and their creations, so someone curious in learning about Impressionism might have to look elsewhere. This is rather the place for the fans or 'almost' fans of Monet, learning about his life.
I think `mad' is a little bit exaggerating. Monet appears to me such a lovely, sensitive giant. He was rich, successful, had great influences and friendships with important people. He was perhaps as powerful as an artist could be, commanding such exorbitant prices for his works. He was also a hermit, not talkative, hardworking and passionate. But even the most powerful figure can feel insecure at times. Monet could be anxious, edgy, jumpy. He questioned his own ability, plunged into depression easily each time he was in the midst of deep creation. Mild depressions proved to be quite productive, but of course severe depressions could backfire.
All of those characters, I think, are natural. Not to mention this `mad' period is when Monet was in his late 70s early 80s. Elder people could be difficult to deal with, as we all know. They require much attention and babysitting. Monet was lucky to have two people caring a lot for him: his close friend and powerful politician Clemenceau and his step-daughter, also daughter in law, Blanche Hoschede-Monet.
I feel a great pity that most records can be recovered here are in letters, and of course letters are sent and received between friends living in some distance. As a result, the observation that we can collect about the artist is mostly from his correspondences with Clemenceau and other friends. The closest person to him, Blanche, was only mentioned on side note. She was certainly loved and appreciated for all her work and devotion, yet the direct interaction between her and Monet isn't known, and it seems that she doesn't write any memoir about her step father. And Blanche is an artist herself.
But coming back to Monet, I think he has such an endearing characters. Not for a single moment, well maybe except one (the big one in 1924), that I lost temper with him. In photographs and in interactions with most people, he appeared more lively and confident though quiet, but, as revealed in his letters with Clemenceau, he was shy and unsure, despite his fame and power he had. And I don't think that he was just fishing for compliments, since at times he did destroy many of his canvases, feeling they weren't good enough. He was asking a lot from himself, asking a lot as experience grew, vision enlarged and ambition burnt yet body slowly failed. And he was sensitive, worried about others' opinions, not the kind and always complimenting Clemenceau, but he general public, the future perception of his body of work, especially the work in the last few years of his life. The depression is natural. And in fact it was rightly placed. His magnificent collection in Orangerie was quite neglected for a few decades, until 1960s when there was a revived interest in Monet from Abstract Expressionists, and only truly properly cared for in the 90s and 00s.
No this is a man who was at times difficult but not unkind. Reading his letters are completely different from reading Vincent van gogh's, mind you. (If interested in Vincent, please ignore the dramatized and novelized Irving Stone's Lust for Life but more serious work, such as Van Gogh: The Life or at least read directly his letters The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, you will find such an annoying and disturbing personality who loved to tortured his ever patient brother Theo). Monet, on the other hand, is lovely. The letters among this period are disproportionately full of anxiety and of whining, as he suffered loss of his wife, some of his friends, and also his health. But here are the letters shared with his closest friend, not that he was always just whining and did nothing. In fact he worked hard, produced so many canvases despite everything. He cared about others and worked to reconcile with Clemenceau. What I can see is someone who yearns for more, not money, oh well maybe a little bit more of recognition, but most for better vision, for more work, more art. He is in love with painting and with his garden, and someone with true passion always moves me. I cried in my heart a little bit as I saw his death, the moment when he couldn't see anymore.
I think `mad' is a little bit exaggerating. Monet appears to me such a lovely, sensitive giant. He was rich, successful, had great influences and friendships with important people. He was perhaps as powerful as an artist could be, commanding such exorbitant prices for his works. He was also a hermit, not talkative, hardworking and passionate. But even the most powerful figure can feel insecure at times. Monet could be anxious, edgy, jumpy. He questioned his own ability, plunged into depression easily each time he was in the midst of deep creation. Mild depressions proved to be quite productive, but of course severe depressions could backfire.
All of those characters, I think, are natural. Not to mention this `mad' period is when Monet was in his late 70s early 80s. Elder people could be difficult to deal with, as we all know. They require much attention and babysitting. Monet was lucky to have two people caring a lot for him: his close friend and powerful politician Clemenceau and his step-daughter, also daughter in law, Blanche Hoschede-Monet.
I feel a great pity that most records can be recovered here are in letters, and of course letters are sent and received between friends living in some distance. As a result, the observation that we can collect about the artist is mostly from his correspondences with Clemenceau and other friends. The closest person to him, Blanche, was only mentioned on side note. She was certainly loved and appreciated for all her work and devotion, yet the direct interaction between her and Monet isn't known, and it seems that she doesn't write any memoir about her step father. And Blanche is an artist herself.
But coming back to Monet, I think he has such an endearing characters. Not for a single moment, well maybe except one (the big one in 1924), that I lost temper with him. In photographs and in interactions with most people, he appeared more lively and confident though quiet, but, as revealed in his letters with Clemenceau, he was shy and unsure, despite his fame and power he had. And I don't think that he was just fishing for compliments, since at times he did destroy many of his canvases, feeling they weren't good enough. He was asking a lot from himself, asking a lot as experience grew, vision enlarged and ambition burnt yet body slowly failed. And he was sensitive, worried about others' opinions, not the kind and always complimenting Clemenceau, but he general public, the future perception of his body of work, especially the work in the last few years of his life. The depression is natural. And in fact it was rightly placed. His magnificent collection in Orangerie was quite neglected for a few decades, until 1960s when there was a revived interest in Monet from Abstract Expressionists, and only truly properly cared for in the 90s and 00s.
No this is a man who was at times difficult but not unkind. Reading his letters are completely different from reading Vincent van gogh's, mind you. (If interested in Vincent, please ignore the dramatized and novelized Irving Stone's Lust for Life but more serious work, such as Van Gogh: The Life or at least read directly his letters The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, you will find such an annoying and disturbing personality who loved to tortured his ever patient brother Theo). Monet, on the other hand, is lovely. The letters among this period are disproportionately full of anxiety and of whining, as he suffered loss of his wife, some of his friends, and also his health. But here are the letters shared with his closest friend, not that he was always just whining and did nothing. In fact he worked hard, produced so many canvases despite everything. He cared about others and worked to reconcile with Clemenceau. What I can see is someone who yearns for more, not money, oh well maybe a little bit more of recognition, but most for better vision, for more work, more art. He is in love with painting and with his garden, and someone with true passion always moves me. I cried in my heart a little bit as I saw his death, the moment when he couldn't see anymore.
February 6, 2017
I once heard that if you knock a book off the shelf, you must read it. At my last library visit, I knocked Mad Enchantment off the new non fiction shelf. Between my superstition and the very interesting cover (only half a book jacket) I gave it a chance. It turned out to be a very serendipitous choice as the book is amazing.
Monet's story of the Water Lilies is a fascinating one. It was one of his last works and was done during World War I. With as great of a history as it was, my absolute favorite part was Clemenceau. The friendship between Monet and the French politician is beautiful! Ross King's description of Georges Clemenceau has left me so intrigued. I'm already looking for a biography on the man. I hope to find him as amazing as Ross depicted him.
Definitely a five star read!
Monet's story of the Water Lilies is a fascinating one. It was one of his last works and was done during World War I. With as great of a history as it was, my absolute favorite part was Clemenceau. The friendship between Monet and the French politician is beautiful! Ross King's description of Georges Clemenceau has left me so intrigued. I'm already looking for a biography on the man. I hope to find him as amazing as Ross depicted him.
Definitely a five star read!
September 8, 2016
As much as we imagine Monet and his tranquil home, Giverny, as a spot secluded in place and time, it wasn't. Monet was subject to the forces around him, while working on some of his most famous art, the Water Lilies series.
Mad Enchantment is a deeply researched, well-written biography of Claude Monet. It starts in the Belle Époque, a time of peace just before World War I. Author Ross King introduces us to Monet, as well as his family and companions. We learn about his benefactors, his friends, and his critics.
King includes charming personal details about the artist, "Monet loved birds and animals, even leaving the windows of his dining room open so the sparrows could help themselves to bread crumbs from the table."
We learn about the property in Giverney, as well as how the gardens inspired Monet's art as he entered his 70s.
As a former marketing professional, I was surprised to learn about Money's astute branding. Says King, "Monet’s use of this new term, “Grande Décoration,” which he pointedly capitalized, was intended to pique the interest of Koechlin, a respected art historian and administrator whose specialty happened to be the decorative arts."
All that said, I just didn't find the book riveting enough to read past the 30% mark. The writing is fairly dry, and focuses on the historical context of Monet's life rather than on the man himself.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Mad Enchantment is a deeply researched, well-written biography of Claude Monet. It starts in the Belle Époque, a time of peace just before World War I. Author Ross King introduces us to Monet, as well as his family and companions. We learn about his benefactors, his friends, and his critics.
King includes charming personal details about the artist, "Monet loved birds and animals, even leaving the windows of his dining room open so the sparrows could help themselves to bread crumbs from the table."
We learn about the property in Giverney, as well as how the gardens inspired Monet's art as he entered his 70s.
As a former marketing professional, I was surprised to learn about Money's astute branding. Says King, "Monet’s use of this new term, “Grande Décoration,” which he pointedly capitalized, was intended to pique the interest of Koechlin, a respected art historian and administrator whose specialty happened to be the decorative arts."
All that said, I just didn't find the book riveting enough to read past the 30% mark. The writing is fairly dry, and focuses on the historical context of Monet's life rather than on the man himself.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
December 10, 2016
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
The story of Claude Monet's later years and the famous paintings he produced at home in Giverny, abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams:
In the 1890's the painter and his large family move to the famous town, and over the years the gardens at his house become lush, exotic
and famous for pictures of water lilies and weeping willows - part of 'le grand decoration'. But how did it all start?
Reader Allan Corduner
Producer Duncan Minshull.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08492fv
The story of Claude Monet's later years and the famous paintings he produced at home in Giverny, abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams:
In the 1890's the painter and his large family move to the famous town, and over the years the gardens at his house become lush, exotic
and famous for pictures of water lilies and weeping willows - part of 'le grand decoration'. But how did it all start?
Reader Allan Corduner
Producer Duncan Minshull.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08492fv
March 22, 2019
I tried starting this book 5 times before I was able to get past the first 10 pages. That was a sign. I did read this in it's entirety but I was bored 97% of the time. It was a mixture of the writing and the narrator (I listened on audio surprise, surprise!) This just didn't work for me. Long tangents and off-shoots made it difficult to follow what was happening. I would often forget what the original point was by the time he got back to it.
August 5, 2017
As far back as 1891, Octave Mirbeau wrote that Monet did not “limit himself to translating nature” and that his paintings revealed “the states of unconsciousness of the planet, and the suprasensible forms of our thoughts.” A year later, Camille Mauclair enthused that Monet's paintings were “made from a dream and a magical breath...leaving for the eyes only a mad enchantment that convulses vision, reveals an unsuspected nature, lifts it up unto the symbol by way of this unreal and vertiginous execution.” Monet, he claimed, skimmed over “the philosophy of appearances” in order to show “eternal nature in all her fleeting aspects”.
As an eighteen-year-old backpacking around Europe, I distinctly remember being overwhelmed as I experienced Monet's Water Lilies installation (although before I read this book, I would have sworn this room was an annex attached directly to the Louvre, not a separate museum; yet I can find no evidence to support my false memory), and what overwhelmed me was the fact that I didn't really understand what I was seeing; having had no prior exposure to Impressionism, I found the huge murals to be unsettling and uncanny; wrong somehow, but undeniably genius. It would seem that my own ambivalent reaction was predated by that of the official French art community (at a time when art was considered a public endeavor and tastes were determined and reinforced by “experts”), and throughout his life and to this day, Claude Monet went in and out of fashion, but always pursued his own point of view. In Mad Enchantment, art historian Ross King examines Monet's career – particularly focussing on the last couple of decades of his life in which he created the Water Lilies – and while the historical perspective and biographical details were illuminating, this book was just all right; a little dull, a little repetitive, the parts about Monet himself being not the most interesting.
Much of Claude Monet’s life and work had been a mad striving for the impossible. His goal, which he frankly admitted was unattainable, was to paint his carefully chosen object – the cathedral, cliff, or wheat stack before which he raised his easel – under singular and fleeting conditions of weather and light. As he told an English visitor, he wanted “to render my impressions before the most fugitive effects.” In 1889 a critic had scoffed that Monet’s paintings were nothing more than a matter of “geography and the calendar.” This was, however, to miss the point of Monet’s work. Since objects changed their color and appearance according to the seasons, the meteorological conditions, and the time of day, Monet hoped to capture their visual impact in these brief, distinctive, ever-changing moments in time. He concentrated not only on the objects themselves but also, critically, on the atmosphere that surrounded them, the erratically shifting phantoms of light and color that he called the enveloppe. “Everything changes, even stone,” he wrote to Alice while working on his paintings of the façade of Rouen Cathedral. But freezing the appearance of objects amid fleeting phantoms of light and air was no easy task. “I am chasing a dream,” he admitted in 1895. “I want the impossible.”
In 1883, after having suffered the loss of both his wife and one of his sons, Monet moved to the village of Giverny with his mistress, her six children, and his surviving child. He was, by this time, perhaps France's most famous and respected painter – Impressionism having finally gained respectability – and with his great wealth, Monet was soon able to not only buy the largest home in the village, but the adjoining properties in order to expand his gardens. He was able to flood one swampy adjoining lot by diverting the local river (tant pis for the locals and their thirsty cattle) and here create a beautiful lily pond, stocked with the latest dazzling hybrids introduced by the Horticultural Society. Monet was a gourmand and a generous host, always insisting on a hearty wine-soaked lunch for visitors, and a postprandial stroll often involved taking guests through a tunnel beneath the nearby road and emerging on the banks of his Edenic pond (I loved the notion that, although this property was ringed with a stone wall for privacy, Monet had left an opening for curious eyes). Standing on the Japanese bridge and staring down at his prized lilies, and deeper, at their swaying roots, Monet became obsessed with the idea of capturing the totality of everything he was seeing: light and water and atmosphere and matter. Although he did sometimes turn to other subjects, most of the painting Monet did for the rest of his life occurred at the edge of this pond.
Mad Enchantment really takes off when WWI breaks out, and as the battle is fought within twenty miles of his village home (and as four close family members, including his own son, are sent to the front), Monet's art takes on the label of “war effort”. Despite the privations felt by the entire country as the war drags on and on, Monet is able to requisition coal and petrol and cigarettes as a matter of national priority, and it is during these years that he conceives of the Grande Décoration – the massively scaled water lily murals that would undoubtedly require a dedicated space for their display – and he attacked the project with his customary obsessiveness and brutishness: heaping abuse on the beloved stepdaughter who acted as his assistant, destroying canvases by the dozen with knife and bonfire when piqued by fury. I liked the incidental information about how the Great War was impacting French art in general; and especially that it took serving cubists to conceive of (and create) the first camouflage; and that eventually the cubists went out of favour as too “Germanic” a style (which led to the resurgence of Impressionism as the true French art language). And doesn't this all sound so interesting?
The problem I have with Mad Enchantment is that all the best parts are told from the perspective of Monet's old friend Georges Clemenceau – the politician and wartime prime minister whose nickname was “The Tiger” (eventually to be known as “Father Victory”) – and while his letters are famously witty and perceptive, and often the voice of encouragement and reason that continually prompts Monet to pick up his paintbrush again, by comparison, Monet seems a bit dull and spoiled. One man is described driving to the front to rally the troops, negotiating the Treaty of Versailles, travelling the world to ensure support for the reconstruction of France, and the other man stands in his garden painting flowers: I 100% support the notion of art as an important civic endeavor, and without the wartime stories there would be a definite lack of perspective for what Monet was trying to express in his work, but if you cut out everything from this book about and written by Clemenceau, there wouldn't be any book left. (And note: if this book had been called The Tiger and the Hedgehog and marketed as the story of this remarkable friendship, I wouldn't have this issue.)
I also found the prose to be plodding and repetitive: ie, At one point King includes a story about Monet being so focussed on his painting that a barber would need to visit the gardens to trim his hair as he worked. And then near the end of the book, King notes that a writer was granted access to compose a biography of the great painter late in his life, and it was here that Monet first shared the story of summoning the barber. I wasn't trying to collect examples of things that annoyed me in this book, but this kind of repetition (stating something once as “something that was known to happen”, and then again as “this is when it happened”) jarred me a few times. There was also a feeling of the book being padded with too much extraneous information – and I totally understand why an author who did such extensive research would have a hard time not putting in everything he found interesting – but for example: there are a couple of pages on the symbolism of water lilies in classical myth (and especially how they represent “the lost female”; pertinent to an artist, one supposes, who outlived both of his wives), and at the end of this exposition, King concludes that while this is provocative, Monet himself never mentioned being interested in such symbolism.
It is difficult to separate discussions of an artist’s “late work” from romantic associations of blind seers offering up unutterable visions from beyond the threshold, or of old men raging against the dying of the light. But it is undeniable that as his eye filmed over and his vision slowly dimmed, Monet, “who caught and sang the sun in flight”, focused ever more intently on the fleeting rays of light that he had always chased and cherished.
As Monet outlived his fellow Impressionists – his friends Rodin and Renoir, Manet and Cezanne – there was a growing urgency to complete his great final work, and a cruel irony to the cataracts that caused him to go nearly blind. The story of Monet's life becomes more pitiable as he arranges to donate the Water Lilies to a postwar France that is harkening back to the stability of classical forms; several smaller water lily paintings go unsold in Paris galleries. Although in the end Monet couldn't bring himself to let go of the murals during his lifetime, the Orangerie des Tuileries was modified to his specifications and the murals installed as per his vision. And the public stayed away in droves; the gallery eventually being used for other exhibitions (at one point a display of tapestries was draped over Monet's work) and even dog shows. It took American Abstract artists after WWII to “rediscover” the Orangerie and Monet.
Obviously, I learned a lot about Monet in Mad Enchantment, and I loved both the integrated photographs (of people and places) and the colour plates in the middle (that depict various paintings), and the historical perspective certainly sheds a new light of my own unsettling experience with the Water Lilies (it would seem that they are intended to be overwhelming, the splashes of colour evoking the impermanence of life, the series of willows bearing down with the burden of wartorn grief); so this wasn't a waste of time by any means. Just not quite my cuppa in execution.
January 11, 2022
Ross King heeft een fijne neus voor waar het brede kunstminnende publiek van smult. Zowel de Italiaanse renaissance als het Frankrijk van de impressionisten zijn gegarandeerde hits. Maar deze Canadees is niet zomaar een successchrijver.
Ross King doet steeds gedegen opzoekwerk (getuige de uitvoerige bronvermelding en de heel vele voetnoten) maar is alles behalve een saaie kunstzeur. Hij verpakt zijn kunstgeschiedenis als heerlijk leesvoer en past daarbij diverse technieken uit de romankunst toe: conflicten, plotwendingen, verhaallijnen, de ontwikkeling van personages en nevenpersonages… Er komen zelfs cliffhangers bij kijken.
En het werkt! Waanzin & Betovering leest als een waanzinnig goede roman. Maar wat meer is: zelfs wie al wel wat weet over het onderwerp ontdekt gegarandeerd nog leuke nieuwe weetjes en af en toe zelfs verrassende inzichten.
In De Omwenteling van Parijs speelt Ross King de opkomst van Manet uit tegen het lot van Meissonier, de Grote Schilder van Toen, nu zo goed als vergeten. In Waanzin & Betovering schetst King de obsessie van Monet tegen de dreiging van de Grote Oorlog en gaat de voornaamste bijrol naar de Franse politicus George Clemenceau, een grootheid in de Franse politiek, die ik – ik beken – tot nu toe vooral kende omdat een beroemde uitspraak van hem in één van mijn lievelingsfilms voorkomt (“La guerre! C’est une chose trop grave pour la confier à des militaires “).
In Waanzin & Betovering raast de ouder wordende Monet niet alleen tegen de waanzin van zijn tijd, maar ook tegen het wegkwijnen van het licht en zijn nakende sterven. Het ontstaan van zijn laatste meesterwerk kunnen we op de voet volgen dankzij tal van brieven: van Monet en van de vele (soms bekende) bezoekers bij hem thuis in Giverny. (Ik vraag me af hoe dat later zal gaan met onderzoek naar hedendaagse kunstenaars. Zijn e-mails en posts op diverse sociale media een even lang leven beschoren?)
In een laatste hoofdstuk volgen we na het overlijden van de grootmeester het lot van zijn waterlelies. Onder invloed van o.a. Clemenceau krijgen ze hun verdiende prestigieuze plek in Parijs. Daarna verwatert de belangstelling en worden de werken zelfs wat verwaarloosd. Tot ze gered worden door de hernieuwde belangstelling voor Monet, vooral vanuit Amerika.
Claude Monet was veel meer dan die schilder van zonnige bloemenweiden, stemmige zonsopgangen en glinsterende kerkgevels. Wie daaraan twijfelt, moet dit boek zeker lezen.
Ross King doet steeds gedegen opzoekwerk (getuige de uitvoerige bronvermelding en de heel vele voetnoten) maar is alles behalve een saaie kunstzeur. Hij verpakt zijn kunstgeschiedenis als heerlijk leesvoer en past daarbij diverse technieken uit de romankunst toe: conflicten, plotwendingen, verhaallijnen, de ontwikkeling van personages en nevenpersonages… Er komen zelfs cliffhangers bij kijken.
En het werkt! Waanzin & Betovering leest als een waanzinnig goede roman. Maar wat meer is: zelfs wie al wel wat weet over het onderwerp ontdekt gegarandeerd nog leuke nieuwe weetjes en af en toe zelfs verrassende inzichten.
In De Omwenteling van Parijs speelt Ross King de opkomst van Manet uit tegen het lot van Meissonier, de Grote Schilder van Toen, nu zo goed als vergeten. In Waanzin & Betovering schetst King de obsessie van Monet tegen de dreiging van de Grote Oorlog en gaat de voornaamste bijrol naar de Franse politicus George Clemenceau, een grootheid in de Franse politiek, die ik – ik beken – tot nu toe vooral kende omdat een beroemde uitspraak van hem in één van mijn lievelingsfilms voorkomt (“La guerre! C’est une chose trop grave pour la confier à des militaires “).
In Waanzin & Betovering raast de ouder wordende Monet niet alleen tegen de waanzin van zijn tijd, maar ook tegen het wegkwijnen van het licht en zijn nakende sterven. Het ontstaan van zijn laatste meesterwerk kunnen we op de voet volgen dankzij tal van brieven: van Monet en van de vele (soms bekende) bezoekers bij hem thuis in Giverny. (Ik vraag me af hoe dat later zal gaan met onderzoek naar hedendaagse kunstenaars. Zijn e-mails en posts op diverse sociale media een even lang leven beschoren?)
In een laatste hoofdstuk volgen we na het overlijden van de grootmeester het lot van zijn waterlelies. Onder invloed van o.a. Clemenceau krijgen ze hun verdiende prestigieuze plek in Parijs. Daarna verwatert de belangstelling en worden de werken zelfs wat verwaarloosd. Tot ze gered worden door de hernieuwde belangstelling voor Monet, vooral vanuit Amerika.
Claude Monet was veel meer dan die schilder van zonnige bloemenweiden, stemmige zonsopgangen en glinsterende kerkgevels. Wie daaraan twijfelt, moet dit boek zeker lezen.
December 11, 2016
2 DEC 2016 - a recommendation through Bettie. Thank you. Such beautiful paintings!
10 DEC 2016 -
Episode 1 of 5 - Mad Enchantment - The story of Claude Monet's later years and the famous paintings he produced at home in Giverny, abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams: In the 1890's the painter and his large family move to the famous town, and over the years the gardens at his house become lush, exotic and famous for pictures of water lilies and weeping willows - part of 'le grand decoration'. But how did it all start? Reader Allan Corduner. Producer Duncan Minshull.
Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0849...
Episode 2 of 5 - World War I rages and has taken away many of the workers from his gardens. But the painter receives his friends and visitors and doggedly gets on with his 'grande decoration.'
Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084bgrn
Episode 3 of 5 - To accommodate the enormous canvases he's working on, the painter must get approval to extend his studios. The new space will become the size of an aircraft hangar, as 'la grande decoration' proceeds. Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084bn5q
Episode 4 of 5 - The painter is under pressure from his friend George Clemenceau to donate some canvases to the state. At the same time he meets one of the world's wealthiest collectors, Kojiro Matsukata from Tokyo. Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084d7b2
Episode 5 of 5 - His cataracts are worsening, which leads to a disintegration of solid forms, but an intensity of vision. Should he visit a doctor in Paris? And what about his donation of paintings to the Orangerie after his death? Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084dkqc
I would have liked to have known Mr Monet.
10 DEC 2016 -
Episode 1 of 5 - Mad Enchantment - The story of Claude Monet's later years and the famous paintings he produced at home in Giverny, abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams: In the 1890's the painter and his large family move to the famous town, and over the years the gardens at his house become lush, exotic and famous for pictures of water lilies and weeping willows - part of 'le grand decoration'. But how did it all start? Reader Allan Corduner. Producer Duncan Minshull.
Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0849...
Episode 2 of 5 - World War I rages and has taken away many of the workers from his gardens. But the painter receives his friends and visitors and doggedly gets on with his 'grande decoration.'
Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084bgrn
Episode 3 of 5 - To accommodate the enormous canvases he's working on, the painter must get approval to extend his studios. The new space will become the size of an aircraft hangar, as 'la grande decoration' proceeds. Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084bn5q
Episode 4 of 5 - The painter is under pressure from his friend George Clemenceau to donate some canvases to the state. At the same time he meets one of the world's wealthiest collectors, Kojiro Matsukata from Tokyo. Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084d7b2
Episode 5 of 5 - His cataracts are worsening, which leads to a disintegration of solid forms, but an intensity of vision. Should he visit a doctor in Paris? And what about his donation of paintings to the Orangerie after his death? Listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084dkqc
I would have liked to have known Mr Monet.
July 10, 2017
Such a powerful story about two best friends at the end of their lives: the impressionist painter Claude Monet and the journalist and politician Georges Clemenceau. They are 70 years old at the beginning of this book and still capable of creating their masterpieces in the next decade: Monet by painting Water Lilies and Clemenceau by becoming prime minister and by decisive contributing to French victory in the First World War. This is easily one of the best books about art that I have ever read.
May 4, 2019
The work of artists who enter their declining years is not usually positive fodder for biographers, but Claude Monet’s later years is one of the exceptions as depicted in Ross King’s book, MAD ENCHANTMENT: CLAUDE MONET AND THE PAINTING OF THE WATER LILIES. King who has written a number of interesting books dealing with art history, including, BRUNELLESCHI’S DOME, MICHELANGELO AND THE POPE’S CEILING, and LEONARDO AND THE LAST SUPPER begins his narrative by pointing out that once Monet reached his sixties and seventies, he had achieved great wealth, notoriety, and produced numerous career defining works. For years rejected by conservative critics and the new Avant Garde Cubists, Monet would find himself producing his Grande Decoration, consisting of eight waterlily murals during the World War I period.
King does an exceptional job reviewing Monet’s life and career up to 1914 when the French artist decided to return to painting after a four-year hiatus due to a series of tragedies. First, his loving second wife, Alice passed away in 1908, then in 1914 his son Jean died, in addition, he began to suffer from cataracts and in 1912 his vision began to decline. During this period a group of his friends also passed, including; Manet, Renoir, Rodin, Pissarro, and Cezanne. Monet still had a number of friends remaining who he could lean on, chief among them was Georges Clemenceau, the French journalist, politician, and man of letters. Clemenceau would support Monet emotionally throughout his life and encouraged him to renew his painting after a visit in early 1914.
One of the most important components of the book is King’s quasi-biography of Clemenceau within the larger narrative of Monet’s life. The later French Prime Minister nicknamed “the Tiger” helped lead France to victory in World War I and would become their voice at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. King uses Clemenceau as a vehicle to integrate French history with Monet’s life story and career and provides the reader the context of how major events affected Monet, how he responded, and their results.
There are a number of turning points in Monet’s life that King delves into. The first is the purchase of Le Pressair in the village of Giverny in 1890, a transaction that did not go over well with local farmers who resented his plan to divert the River Ru and purchase adjoining land to create the large pond on which to plant his water lilies providing him with his subject to paint. The locals saw no commercial benefit in these paintings and resented him as an outsider. Monet’s cantankerous personality also did not endear him to the locals.
The second turning point for Monet was his reaction to the Dreyfus Affair in 1898. Up until that point, Monet’s paintings depicted rural France, deemed as a patriotic message through his art. Along with his friends, Emile Zola, Georges Clemenceau, and other Dreyfusards he rejected and criticized the rise in right-wing French anti-Semitism throughout the 1890s, as well as the unjust conviction of Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army for spying for Germany. Monet decided he would no longer paint rural scenes that could be interpreted as patriotic and concentrate on developing his gardens and canvases.
King accurately points out a number of contradictions when it came to Monet as an artist. First, he wished to work in warm, sunny, and calm conditions, yet much of his career his place of choice to paint was Normandy whose weather was cool and damp for long periods of time. Second, he loved to paint, yet he claimed to find it, “unremittingly torture.” But this torture, friends pointed out was the key that drove him to perfection. King does a wonderful job describing Monet’s methodology and philosophy of painting throughout the narrative, I.e. Monet would paint twelve separate canvases at a time while preparing his Grande Decoration and rotate them on wheels according to the light in order to capture what he hoped to represent. Monet’s health greatly impacted his work in his later years as he was a victim of fatigue and neurasthenia even though to outsiders, he appeared hale and hearty most of the time. His maladies were greatly affected by the weather, which many times he refused to give into resulting in a negative impact on his health.
King approaches his explanation of Impressionism very carefully arguing that Impressionist artists “conspicuously called attention to their brushes and paints. They fragmented their brushstrokes into flickering touches of color that seemed to dissolve their painted worlds into shimmering mirages.” Canvases were not meant to be viewed at close range. King’s discussion of Monet’s painting of the Rouen Cathedral in 1894 with the proposed commission by the state of France to paint the damage caused by German shelling to the Cathedral at Rheims is illustrative of this point. Monet’s Impressionist approach would not be the best way to depict the savagery of German artillery on the cathedral for a government which wanted to heighten French distaste for the “barbaric Germans.” But, for Monet who always wished to receive a commission by the government this was not an acceptable argument, despite the “fuzzy envelope” that seemed to surround the objects that were represented.
The most important event that impacted Monet’s later years was World War I. Monet’s travel and work would have to consider the effects of the war. Art supplies, food, petrol was all rationed and in short supply. A further reason for a state commission would allow Monet to receive coal, food, and materials for his canvases that others could not obtain.
King takes the reader to the Louvre which housed many of Monet’s and his fellow Impressionist friend’s paintings. He reviews the political and economic considerations involved and how German bombardment of Paris, and at times fears of a German attack on the city affected these artists. King provides a unique description and perspective of Paris during the war. Interestingly the fighting produced a war of words between German and French intellectuals over wartime accusations of barbarism. Monet was even recruited to lend his name to these efforts as French intellectuals produced a book entitled, THE GERMANS: DESTROYERS OF CATHEDRALS AND THE TREASURES OF THE PAST.
The war also impacted Monet’s personal life, particularly his anguish over his paintings and his family. Monet refused to leave Giverny during the war as he stated he would rather die among his canvases and life’s work than depart. He also feared for his son Jeanne-Pierre who was in the army as was his son-in-law Albert Salerou. His son Michel would not enter the army until later in the war and would participate in the fighting. It easy for the reader to follow the course of the war as King describes Monet’s life and his interactions with his close friend Georges Clemenceau, I.e., the two battles of the Marne, and the Battle at Verdun, along with its overall impact on Monet and France in general.
The war also galvanized Monet, with a friendly push from Clemenceau to complete the Grande Decoration which according to Kathryn Hughes writing in The Guardian (3 September 2016) there was nothing remotely optimistic or even particularly French about the massive painting that stretched to over 300 feet. It is as Deborah Solomon points out in the New York Times (December 2, 2016) among art history’s greatest last acts as “the water lilies dispense with contours and boundaries and veer toward abstraction.” It is important to note that the subject of Monet’s painting was a garden and pond that was man made and contained hothouse cultivars from South America and Egypt and not a natural outcrop of rural France.
King introduces an important discussion of how tastes in art changed because of the war and the impact of the death of over 300 artists. According to art historian Kenneth Silver, the public and the painters would turn their backs on daring innovation. For many Frenchmen, Cubism and other forms of pre-war art were wild experiments and adventures that were seen as specifically German, and therefore, not to be replicated after the war. At the end of the war Monet offered to donate some of his paintings to the people of France and eventually the lily paintings were installed on specially constructed, curved walls at the Musee de l”Orangerie in Paris. The donation and the negotiations exacerbated by Monet’s need to control how the building would be prepared to receive and maintain his paintings are an integral part of the narrative as King relates his subject’s state of mind and physical health, particularly issues with his vision that led to a number of painful operations.
Solomon sums up her review by arguing that “the book is short on analysis and fails to definitively explain the role played by Monet’s illness in the development of his late style.” But overall King has written a useful book that shatters the myth that Monet painted his Grande Decoration in seclusion when in fact people surrounded him. A staff of gardeners, his granddaughter Blanche, and others all impacted his life, and no one can take away anything from the gift that Monet has produced for posterity.
King does an exceptional job reviewing Monet’s life and career up to 1914 when the French artist decided to return to painting after a four-year hiatus due to a series of tragedies. First, his loving second wife, Alice passed away in 1908, then in 1914 his son Jean died, in addition, he began to suffer from cataracts and in 1912 his vision began to decline. During this period a group of his friends also passed, including; Manet, Renoir, Rodin, Pissarro, and Cezanne. Monet still had a number of friends remaining who he could lean on, chief among them was Georges Clemenceau, the French journalist, politician, and man of letters. Clemenceau would support Monet emotionally throughout his life and encouraged him to renew his painting after a visit in early 1914.
One of the most important components of the book is King’s quasi-biography of Clemenceau within the larger narrative of Monet’s life. The later French Prime Minister nicknamed “the Tiger” helped lead France to victory in World War I and would become their voice at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. King uses Clemenceau as a vehicle to integrate French history with Monet’s life story and career and provides the reader the context of how major events affected Monet, how he responded, and their results.
There are a number of turning points in Monet’s life that King delves into. The first is the purchase of Le Pressair in the village of Giverny in 1890, a transaction that did not go over well with local farmers who resented his plan to divert the River Ru and purchase adjoining land to create the large pond on which to plant his water lilies providing him with his subject to paint. The locals saw no commercial benefit in these paintings and resented him as an outsider. Monet’s cantankerous personality also did not endear him to the locals.
The second turning point for Monet was his reaction to the Dreyfus Affair in 1898. Up until that point, Monet’s paintings depicted rural France, deemed as a patriotic message through his art. Along with his friends, Emile Zola, Georges Clemenceau, and other Dreyfusards he rejected and criticized the rise in right-wing French anti-Semitism throughout the 1890s, as well as the unjust conviction of Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army for spying for Germany. Monet decided he would no longer paint rural scenes that could be interpreted as patriotic and concentrate on developing his gardens and canvases.
King accurately points out a number of contradictions when it came to Monet as an artist. First, he wished to work in warm, sunny, and calm conditions, yet much of his career his place of choice to paint was Normandy whose weather was cool and damp for long periods of time. Second, he loved to paint, yet he claimed to find it, “unremittingly torture.” But this torture, friends pointed out was the key that drove him to perfection. King does a wonderful job describing Monet’s methodology and philosophy of painting throughout the narrative, I.e. Monet would paint twelve separate canvases at a time while preparing his Grande Decoration and rotate them on wheels according to the light in order to capture what he hoped to represent. Monet’s health greatly impacted his work in his later years as he was a victim of fatigue and neurasthenia even though to outsiders, he appeared hale and hearty most of the time. His maladies were greatly affected by the weather, which many times he refused to give into resulting in a negative impact on his health.
King approaches his explanation of Impressionism very carefully arguing that Impressionist artists “conspicuously called attention to their brushes and paints. They fragmented their brushstrokes into flickering touches of color that seemed to dissolve their painted worlds into shimmering mirages.” Canvases were not meant to be viewed at close range. King’s discussion of Monet’s painting of the Rouen Cathedral in 1894 with the proposed commission by the state of France to paint the damage caused by German shelling to the Cathedral at Rheims is illustrative of this point. Monet’s Impressionist approach would not be the best way to depict the savagery of German artillery on the cathedral for a government which wanted to heighten French distaste for the “barbaric Germans.” But, for Monet who always wished to receive a commission by the government this was not an acceptable argument, despite the “fuzzy envelope” that seemed to surround the objects that were represented.
The most important event that impacted Monet’s later years was World War I. Monet’s travel and work would have to consider the effects of the war. Art supplies, food, petrol was all rationed and in short supply. A further reason for a state commission would allow Monet to receive coal, food, and materials for his canvases that others could not obtain.
King takes the reader to the Louvre which housed many of Monet’s and his fellow Impressionist friend’s paintings. He reviews the political and economic considerations involved and how German bombardment of Paris, and at times fears of a German attack on the city affected these artists. King provides a unique description and perspective of Paris during the war. Interestingly the fighting produced a war of words between German and French intellectuals over wartime accusations of barbarism. Monet was even recruited to lend his name to these efforts as French intellectuals produced a book entitled, THE GERMANS: DESTROYERS OF CATHEDRALS AND THE TREASURES OF THE PAST.
The war also impacted Monet’s personal life, particularly his anguish over his paintings and his family. Monet refused to leave Giverny during the war as he stated he would rather die among his canvases and life’s work than depart. He also feared for his son Jeanne-Pierre who was in the army as was his son-in-law Albert Salerou. His son Michel would not enter the army until later in the war and would participate in the fighting. It easy for the reader to follow the course of the war as King describes Monet’s life and his interactions with his close friend Georges Clemenceau, I.e., the two battles of the Marne, and the Battle at Verdun, along with its overall impact on Monet and France in general.
The war also galvanized Monet, with a friendly push from Clemenceau to complete the Grande Decoration which according to Kathryn Hughes writing in The Guardian (3 September 2016) there was nothing remotely optimistic or even particularly French about the massive painting that stretched to over 300 feet. It is as Deborah Solomon points out in the New York Times (December 2, 2016) among art history’s greatest last acts as “the water lilies dispense with contours and boundaries and veer toward abstraction.” It is important to note that the subject of Monet’s painting was a garden and pond that was man made and contained hothouse cultivars from South America and Egypt and not a natural outcrop of rural France.
King introduces an important discussion of how tastes in art changed because of the war and the impact of the death of over 300 artists. According to art historian Kenneth Silver, the public and the painters would turn their backs on daring innovation. For many Frenchmen, Cubism and other forms of pre-war art were wild experiments and adventures that were seen as specifically German, and therefore, not to be replicated after the war. At the end of the war Monet offered to donate some of his paintings to the people of France and eventually the lily paintings were installed on specially constructed, curved walls at the Musee de l”Orangerie in Paris. The donation and the negotiations exacerbated by Monet’s need to control how the building would be prepared to receive and maintain his paintings are an integral part of the narrative as King relates his subject’s state of mind and physical health, particularly issues with his vision that led to a number of painful operations.
Solomon sums up her review by arguing that “the book is short on analysis and fails to definitively explain the role played by Monet’s illness in the development of his late style.” But overall King has written a useful book that shatters the myth that Monet painted his Grande Decoration in seclusion when in fact people surrounded him. A staff of gardeners, his granddaughter Blanche, and others all impacted his life, and no one can take away anything from the gift that Monet has produced for posterity.
July 27, 2016
I once had the opportunity to purchase an original Monet, and by "opportunity", I mean 20 some years ago my wife and I went into a gallery that had one for $14,000. An amount we did not have back then.
I got an advance look at this from NetGalley. This had the potential to be quite dry, but Mr. King did a very good job with the narrative. Incredibly researched and sourced, the later/last years of Monet and his challenges/triumphs with his lilies are laid out in beautiful detail. I have no reference frame to compare, as I've never read a bio of Monet, so I'll simply acknowledge that this appears quite thorough and unvarnished. I especially appreciated King's presentation of events for which he had no confirmation: "Clemenceau would have been conducted to a room he knew well, ..." Unlike hacks like Bill O'Reilly and his semi-ghost who state conjecture as fact, King does no such thing. And speaking of Clemenceau, the Tiger plays a prominent role in this biography - as one would expect if one knew his friendship with Monet.
I like Monet well enough, and though I have have a much deeper exposure to the art world in recent years, I admit I still have a hard time understanding
Or, on Monet changing landmarks:
I have an extremely hard time buying interpretations and inferences unless they are from the conformed words of the actual artist, but King has a plethora of references of the master's own words with respect to his feelings on color and composition and the subject at hand. (Color was a huge source of frustrations in Monet's cataract struggles.)
Bottom line, this is a fascinating story of perhaps the greatest Impressionist artist.
A couple of notes on the book: the review text had no index, or list of illustrations. Nor did it have any photos of the subject (lilies) - I don't know if permissions had not yet been obtained or there is no intent to include them. The photos in the galley (I use that term given the source - NetGalley) were gray-scale. For a book on Monet's water lilies, color would seem to be essential.
I got an advance look at this from NetGalley. This had the potential to be quite dry, but Mr. King did a very good job with the narrative. Incredibly researched and sourced, the later/last years of Monet and his challenges/triumphs with his lilies are laid out in beautiful detail. I have no reference frame to compare, as I've never read a bio of Monet, so I'll simply acknowledge that this appears quite thorough and unvarnished. I especially appreciated King's presentation of events for which he had no confirmation: "Clemenceau would have been conducted to a room he knew well, ..." Unlike hacks like Bill O'Reilly and his semi-ghost who state conjecture as fact, King does no such thing. And speaking of Clemenceau, the Tiger plays a prominent role in this biography - as one would expect if one knew his friendship with Monet.
I like Monet well enough, and though I have have a much deeper exposure to the art world in recent years, I admit I still have a hard time understanding
"Monet paints in a strange language", [a] reviewer had claimed in 1883, "whose secrets, together with a few initiates, he alone possesses."
Or, on Monet changing landmarks:
Faithfully depicting architectural features was less important to him than creating a striking composition."
I have an extremely hard time buying interpretations and inferences unless they are from the conformed words of the actual artist, but King has a plethora of references of the master's own words with respect to his feelings on color and composition and the subject at hand. (Color was a huge source of frustrations in Monet's cataract struggles.)
Bottom line, this is a fascinating story of perhaps the greatest Impressionist artist.
A couple of notes on the book: the review text had no index, or list of illustrations. Nor did it have any photos of the subject (lilies) - I don't know if permissions had not yet been obtained or there is no intent to include them. The photos in the galley (I use that term given the source - NetGalley) were gray-scale. For a book on Monet's water lilies, color would seem to be essential.
April 13, 2025
I feel like a better title for this book would have been Monet In His Later Years: What He Got Up to With All His Buddies. I knew picking this up that it was going to be a book about Monet's later years - this in itself an interesting choice b/c what about Monet's growth/inspiration as a young artist, his romantic (and messy) relationships, and the big one - his role in the birth of Impressionism?? The first few chapters open with Monet living in comfort, having already achieved fame and success, and having lived thru the deaths of both his wives! If you are interested in his early years or the birth of Impressionism in general, this is definitely not the book for you (I might try to pick up Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism to learn more about the latter).
Putting aside the author's choice choice to focus only on Monet's last few decades, I was surprised how little time the author spent on water lilies and Monet's actual art. The vast majority of this book was about Monet's contemporaries in the artistic, literary and political world (his friendship with the French politician Georges Clemenceau being perhaps the main topic of the work) as well as the impact of WW1 on thier lives. Sometimes interesting, but I wanted wayyy more on Monet's artistic technique, use of color, and style!
Reading Mad Enchantment did, however, make me want to visit Musée de l'Orangerie to see Monet's water lily paintings in person.
This is my second book by this author and while I liked Mad Enchantment more than Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture, reading this didn't exactly get me excited to pick up another King. I might try Leonardo and the Last Supper since the description sounds right up my alley, but definitely not rushing to pick it up.
Putting aside the author's choice choice to focus only on Monet's last few decades, I was surprised how little time the author spent on water lilies and Monet's actual art. The vast majority of this book was about Monet's contemporaries in the artistic, literary and political world (his friendship with the French politician Georges Clemenceau being perhaps the main topic of the work) as well as the impact of WW1 on thier lives. Sometimes interesting, but I wanted wayyy more on Monet's artistic technique, use of color, and style!
Reading Mad Enchantment did, however, make me want to visit Musée de l'Orangerie to see Monet's water lily paintings in person.
This is my second book by this author and while I liked Mad Enchantment more than Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture, reading this didn't exactly get me excited to pick up another King. I might try Leonardo and the Last Supper since the description sounds right up my alley, but definitely not rushing to pick it up.
June 24, 2016
As a girl I scoured the public library for art books. My love of the Impressionists, especially Monet, came early. I requested Ross King's new book on Claude Monet as soon as I saw it on NetGalley.
Although I was very familiar with Monet's paintings, especially those in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I knew very little about his life.
King focuses on Monet's later years as he struggled to realize his Grande Decoration during WWI while dealing with failing eyesight. The trails of the artistic life, how genius copes with human limitations, and the horrendous impact of WWI on France is vividly portrayed.
Although it took me a few chapters to get into the book I became swept up in Monet's story. I recall complaining, "I can't stop now, Monet's undergoing eye surgery!"
The book begins in April, 1914 with Monet's dear friend Prime Minister Clemenceau coming to Giverny, the rustic hamlet where Monet built an 'earthly paradise'--the gardens now famously preserved in his paintings.
The concept of Monet's Grande Decoration was born after the death of his son Jean in 1914. His water lily pond would be recreated through a series of massive paintings to be displayed in an oval room. He spent years obsessed with capturing ephemeral beauty. Monet promised Clemenceau he would give the water lily paintings to France.
"Many people think I paint easily, but it is not an easy things to be an artist. I often suffer tortures when I paint. it is a great joy and a great suffering." Claude Monet
Cataracts and blindness plagued Monet and compromised his belief in himself. He knew what he wanted to achieve but felt his limitations.
Monet was a passionate man who would rave at life's limitations. He was his own worse critic, destroying canvases that he considered failures. He stalled handing over the paintings. As long as he had his great work he had a reason to live. The delay strained his friendship with Clemenceau.
At his death in 1926 the paintings were put on display in the Orangerie at Tuileries. Go on a virtual visit to here.
Monet the man and the artist was brought to life in King's book and I have a better appreciation of the impact of WWI on France.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Although I was very familiar with Monet's paintings, especially those in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I knew very little about his life.
King focuses on Monet's later years as he struggled to realize his Grande Decoration during WWI while dealing with failing eyesight. The trails of the artistic life, how genius copes with human limitations, and the horrendous impact of WWI on France is vividly portrayed.
Although it took me a few chapters to get into the book I became swept up in Monet's story. I recall complaining, "I can't stop now, Monet's undergoing eye surgery!"
The book begins in April, 1914 with Monet's dear friend Prime Minister Clemenceau coming to Giverny, the rustic hamlet where Monet built an 'earthly paradise'--the gardens now famously preserved in his paintings.
The concept of Monet's Grande Decoration was born after the death of his son Jean in 1914. His water lily pond would be recreated through a series of massive paintings to be displayed in an oval room. He spent years obsessed with capturing ephemeral beauty. Monet promised Clemenceau he would give the water lily paintings to France.
"Many people think I paint easily, but it is not an easy things to be an artist. I often suffer tortures when I paint. it is a great joy and a great suffering." Claude Monet
Cataracts and blindness plagued Monet and compromised his belief in himself. He knew what he wanted to achieve but felt his limitations.
Monet was a passionate man who would rave at life's limitations. He was his own worse critic, destroying canvases that he considered failures. He stalled handing over the paintings. As long as he had his great work he had a reason to live. The delay strained his friendship with Clemenceau.
At his death in 1926 the paintings were put on display in the Orangerie at Tuileries. Go on a virtual visit to here.
Monet the man and the artist was brought to life in King's book and I have a better appreciation of the impact of WWI on France.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
September 6, 2016
I received an e-ARC of this book through NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA.
The artists who led The Impressionist Period are, for the most part, my favorite artists. I've not tried to chose a "favorite" because different paintings by different artists give me pleasure in varying ways. Claude Monet has always been special and his water lilies in particular give me great pleasure in simply standing before a painting and losing myself in the picture.
I've not read any works by Ross King and I have to admit I hesitated before requesting this book because I was afraid it might either lean too far toward the technical aspect of each painting or it might simply be a dry as dust listing of facts. Neither of those could possibly be farther from what I found. Claude Monet comes alive for me in this book. His family, his friends, his works, his struggles and his successes also come vividly alive under the skillful handling of Mr. King. Monet was not an easy man to deal with from both personal and professional aspects and this book does not try to gloss over those portions of his life. The need to paint, not just the water lilies, but all the scenes which have defined the French countryside around Giverny is presented as a compulsion which drove Monet to produce the masterpieces we now see even though they weren't considered masterpieces for a long time while he was still alive. Reading about how Monet destroyed hundreds of his paintings was positively painful to me as I was reading about his physical problems with his eyesight in his later life.
Ross King has given us a view of Claude Monet which feels personal and private. I enjoyed every minute of the time I spent reading this wonderful book.
The artists who led The Impressionist Period are, for the most part, my favorite artists. I've not tried to chose a "favorite" because different paintings by different artists give me pleasure in varying ways. Claude Monet has always been special and his water lilies in particular give me great pleasure in simply standing before a painting and losing myself in the picture.
I've not read any works by Ross King and I have to admit I hesitated before requesting this book because I was afraid it might either lean too far toward the technical aspect of each painting or it might simply be a dry as dust listing of facts. Neither of those could possibly be farther from what I found. Claude Monet comes alive for me in this book. His family, his friends, his works, his struggles and his successes also come vividly alive under the skillful handling of Mr. King. Monet was not an easy man to deal with from both personal and professional aspects and this book does not try to gloss over those portions of his life. The need to paint, not just the water lilies, but all the scenes which have defined the French countryside around Giverny is presented as a compulsion which drove Monet to produce the masterpieces we now see even though they weren't considered masterpieces for a long time while he was still alive. Reading about how Monet destroyed hundreds of his paintings was positively painful to me as I was reading about his physical problems with his eyesight in his later life.
Ross King has given us a view of Claude Monet which feels personal and private. I enjoyed every minute of the time I spent reading this wonderful book.
October 9, 2017
By far the worst of King's books. I cannot understand why King spent so much time writing about WWI, this is far from his strong suit. The parts concerning Monet and other artists was interesting but burdened by the rest of the book.
November 5, 2022
I recommend "Mad Enchantment" highly to any North American tourist who has had the unnerving experience of visiting the musée de l'Orangerie in Paris which houses Monet's famous "Water Lilies" or " Nymphéas". The brutal white colour and oval shape of the viewing gallery gives the viewer the impression that he or she is looking the paintings from within a toilet bowl. The transformative powers of Ross King's prose allows the reader to have beautiful memories of a rather grotesque time spent in front of Monet's masterpiece. Mad Enchantment" would, of course, be best read on the trans-Atlantic to Paris as its light style and delightful anecdotes are sure to relieve the tedium inherent to passing 11 hours in an airplane.
The "Nymphéas" of musée de l' Orangerie is a set of eight curved paintings 2 metres in height and varying in length from 6 to 17 metres covering a surface of roughly 200 square metres. Monet's intention was to immerse the gallery goer in a view of his pond at Giverny. The paintings were executed between 1914 and 1922. Ross King describes how Monet conceived and executed the project. He gives particular emphasis on Monet's negotiations with the French government to accept the gift of his Water Lily paintings and more importantly to ensure that two elliptical shaped galleries would be constructed to display them at the Orangerie Museum in Paris. Fortunately, Monet had as a close friend the Prime Minister of France, Georges Clemenceau who exerted considerable pressure on the French government to accept Monet's gift and to build the required galleries.
In his book King establishes an excellent narrative structure in which Monet's struggle to paint the great work runs in parallel with Clemenceau's waging of World War In King's view two friends were fighting a single war for the glory of their nation. In my view this is a preposterous thesis but one which makes for exciting reading. King to his credit sheds excellent light on the difficulties encountered by artists and rich collectors whenever they try to give away their paintings. Similarly his descriptions of the friendship of Clemenceau and Monet is truly touching.
"Mad Enchantment" offers much balderdash and occasional moments of true insight. King deplores the fact that the initial reaction to the "Nymphéas" when the gallery was opened. He never acknowledges how nutty the idea was. He flounders about trying to establish a non-existent link between Marcel Proust and Monet. King describes the close friendship between the writer Octave Mirbeau ("The Diary of a Chambermaid"). King correctly asserts that Mirbeau is under-rated but is unable to explain Mirbeau's greatness as a writer which is inexplicable given that King possesses a doctorate in English literature. Luis Bunuel in his movie version of the "Chambermaid" pleads a much better case for Mirbeau.
"Mad Enchantment" is great fun but it is not great art history. King has done better in the past and will likely do so in the future.
The "Nymphéas" of musée de l' Orangerie is a set of eight curved paintings 2 metres in height and varying in length from 6 to 17 metres covering a surface of roughly 200 square metres. Monet's intention was to immerse the gallery goer in a view of his pond at Giverny. The paintings were executed between 1914 and 1922. Ross King describes how Monet conceived and executed the project. He gives particular emphasis on Monet's negotiations with the French government to accept the gift of his Water Lily paintings and more importantly to ensure that two elliptical shaped galleries would be constructed to display them at the Orangerie Museum in Paris. Fortunately, Monet had as a close friend the Prime Minister of France, Georges Clemenceau who exerted considerable pressure on the French government to accept Monet's gift and to build the required galleries.
In his book King establishes an excellent narrative structure in which Monet's struggle to paint the great work runs in parallel with Clemenceau's waging of World War In King's view two friends were fighting a single war for the glory of their nation. In my view this is a preposterous thesis but one which makes for exciting reading. King to his credit sheds excellent light on the difficulties encountered by artists and rich collectors whenever they try to give away their paintings. Similarly his descriptions of the friendship of Clemenceau and Monet is truly touching.
"Mad Enchantment" offers much balderdash and occasional moments of true insight. King deplores the fact that the initial reaction to the "Nymphéas" when the gallery was opened. He never acknowledges how nutty the idea was. He flounders about trying to establish a non-existent link between Marcel Proust and Monet. King describes the close friendship between the writer Octave Mirbeau ("The Diary of a Chambermaid"). King correctly asserts that Mirbeau is under-rated but is unable to explain Mirbeau's greatness as a writer which is inexplicable given that King possesses a doctorate in English literature. Luis Bunuel in his movie version of the "Chambermaid" pleads a much better case for Mirbeau.
"Mad Enchantment" is great fun but it is not great art history. King has done better in the past and will likely do so in the future.
March 28, 2025
Worth reading. Learn about C. Monet's life, painting strategy and delivery during his life. The story highlights what and how paintings were purchased and by whom. C. Monet painted some of his greatest work during WWI.
October 29, 2022
Beautiful. I enjoyed every bit of this book and was trying to push finishing it.
February 22, 2018
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. Frankly, I picked it up because it had been nominated for a major Canadian literary award, and I knew something about Monet because my art teacher husband has walls of art books. As well, who hasn't seen reproductions (or, if you're privileged enough, the real thing) of his work, had a coffee mug or tee shirt, etc.
To my surprise, I was utterly absorbed by the book. While it dwells almost exclusively on the last 15 years of Monet's life and the creation of his huge final masterwork, I found the history in the book enhanced my understanding and interest. Monet was hugely wealthy, phenomenally well-connected, and completely self-absorbed, but his physical struggles (especially his vision), agonies of self-doubt and volatile temperament were close to overwhelming him during much of the time frame covered here. The chapters dealing with the last two years of his life and his death were hugely moving.
I learned so much about France and the effect of the Great War on that country. I found the character Georges Clemenceau fascinating. I got a glimpse as to why the Treaty of Versailles was so punitive towards Germany. All of this is masterfully covered in numerous other books, but it gave context to the entire story.
It's hard to believe that for some 25 years after he died in 1926, Monet was regularly relegated to a has-been status, denigrated by "great" critics, ignored by France, his unsold paintings going for a pittance. (Wouldn't you have liked to grab one of those beauties from his son's basement in 1946?) I guess what goes around comes around, as they say. There is hardly an artist of any era whose name evokes "France" more than Claude Monet.
To my surprise, I was utterly absorbed by the book. While it dwells almost exclusively on the last 15 years of Monet's life and the creation of his huge final masterwork, I found the history in the book enhanced my understanding and interest. Monet was hugely wealthy, phenomenally well-connected, and completely self-absorbed, but his physical struggles (especially his vision), agonies of self-doubt and volatile temperament were close to overwhelming him during much of the time frame covered here. The chapters dealing with the last two years of his life and his death were hugely moving.
I learned so much about France and the effect of the Great War on that country. I found the character Georges Clemenceau fascinating. I got a glimpse as to why the Treaty of Versailles was so punitive towards Germany. All of this is masterfully covered in numerous other books, but it gave context to the entire story.
It's hard to believe that for some 25 years after he died in 1926, Monet was regularly relegated to a has-been status, denigrated by "great" critics, ignored by France, his unsold paintings going for a pittance. (Wouldn't you have liked to grab one of those beauties from his son's basement in 1946?) I guess what goes around comes around, as they say. There is hardly an artist of any era whose name evokes "France" more than Claude Monet.
August 29, 2021
Monet lived a long life and saw things change over time. It is unfortunate that he spent his elder years in the cataclysm of the first world war. What is it like to see old certitudes burned away in a baptism of fire? I think older people now might be feeling the same way about 2020. Monet's talent never ebbed in his long life and was doing wonderful work up to the end. Excellent story of a figure among an art movement that I always had a fascination which is shared by many.
Update 8/27/2021 Never get enough of the impressionists, even aging impressionists who are looking back at the end of their lives like Monet around WWI.
https://youtu.be/fd-Me3EBGYY
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following reviews
READING PROGRESS
December 30, 2020 – Started Reading
December 30, 2020 – Shelved
December 30, 2020 – page 16
3.85%
December 30, 2020 – page 35
8.41%
December 30, 2020 – page 35
8.41% "King is good at setting the scene around Giverny Monet's hometown in Belle Epoche France. He includes sights sounds in the writing and common articles and food and drink of the time. A very immersive narrative."
December 30, 2020 – page 49
11.78% "talking a little about Monet's talent to abstract in form a vision of concrete things "to be a mirror without a frame'"
December 30, 2020 – page 49
11.78% "Damn it is spelled Belle Epoque, not Belle Epoche. And I thought I was being all slick with my vocab."
December 30, 2020 – page 69
16.59%
December 30, 2020 – page 85
20.43%
December 30, 2020 – page 117
28.13%
December 31, 2020 – page 133
31.97%
December 31, 2020 – page 150
36.06%
December 31, 2020 – page 171
41.11%
December 31, 2020 – page 185
44.47%
December 31, 2020 – page 213
51.2%
December 31, 2020 – page 243
58.41% "imagine having the world fall apart as an old person like be a seventy-year-old during WWI. the world making a radical break at the end of your days I think about my parents or even myself in 2020"
December 31, 2020 – page 293
70.43%
December 31, 2020 –
99.0%
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: art
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: biography
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: early-twentieth-century
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: european-history
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: nineteenth-century
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: politics
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: psychology
December 31, 2020 – Finished Reading
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Update 8/27/2021 Never get enough of the impressionists, even aging impressionists who are looking back at the end of their lives like Monet around WWI.
https://youtu.be/fd-Me3EBGYY
Like ∙ flag
following reviews
READING PROGRESS
December 30, 2020 – Started Reading
December 30, 2020 – Shelved
December 30, 2020 – page 16
3.85%
December 30, 2020 – page 35
8.41%
December 30, 2020 – page 35
8.41% "King is good at setting the scene around Giverny Monet's hometown in Belle Epoche France. He includes sights sounds in the writing and common articles and food and drink of the time. A very immersive narrative."
December 30, 2020 – page 49
11.78% "talking a little about Monet's talent to abstract in form a vision of concrete things "to be a mirror without a frame'"
December 30, 2020 – page 49
11.78% "Damn it is spelled Belle Epoque, not Belle Epoche. And I thought I was being all slick with my vocab."
December 30, 2020 – page 69
16.59%
December 30, 2020 – page 85
20.43%
December 30, 2020 – page 117
28.13%
December 31, 2020 – page 133
31.97%
December 31, 2020 – page 150
36.06%
December 31, 2020 – page 171
41.11%
December 31, 2020 – page 185
44.47%
December 31, 2020 – page 213
51.2%
December 31, 2020 – page 243
58.41% "imagine having the world fall apart as an old person like be a seventy-year-old during WWI. the world making a radical break at the end of your days I think about my parents or even myself in 2020"
December 31, 2020 – page 293
70.43%
December 31, 2020 –
99.0%
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: art
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: biography
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: early-twentieth-century
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: european-history
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: nineteenth-century
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: politics
December 31, 2020 – Shelved as: psychology
December 31, 2020 – Finished Reading
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July 6, 2022
Well written, well researched, and nicely illustrated popular history of Claude Monet’s famed Nymphéas (or water lilies) paintings, his Grande Décoration. Though the art history analysis of these famous works is definitely discussed, including views of these works of art in the decades after his death and the influence of these paintings on popular culture and the wider art world, the book is primarily a history of the struggles Monet overcame to produce these great works of art and then to fulfil his promise to give them as a gift to France and to find a suitable home for them, with the author discussing in detail how the famed collection ended up in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris (and different water lily paintings ended up in other places in the world from Chicago to Japan though the stars ended up in this one museum). The author described how the Orangerie became as painter André Mason called the “Sistine Chapel of Impressionism” but also sadly went through a time of considerable neglect, even being used as storage, for a time called by one person a “deserted place in the heart of the city,” that as another critic said that Monet had “submerged himself…in stagnant, florid waters” and by painting the water lily paintings had committed “artistic suicide” and French museum goers and art historians had lost all interest. Happily, later visiting Americans in the 1940s and 1950s “all rushed like flies” to see the Nymphéas, the start of a revival in interest decades after Monet’s death that eventually came to appreciate “the work of a colossus”(with the author discussing a few times the irony of how Americans were often Monet’s biggest fans yet Monet himself didn’t particularly care for the United States or its art consumption).
This book can also be read as a biography of the last decades of Monet’s life, not just the time from 1914 (when he began the water lily paintings) till his death in 1926 (he basically worked on them till the end), but also of some time before that (though it is by no means a biography of Monet’s entire life). Great coverage of the trials and tribulations he faced, some tragic like the deaths of his beloved wife Alice and his eldest son Jean (who both died shortly before he began the Grande Décoration), some the result of getting old (the author going into detail on Monet’s struggle with worsening eyesight, even possibly blindness), but perhaps most of all own personal psychological struggles. It was very interesting to read how this grand project both was a lifesaver to Monet “[f]or the past ten years the Grande Décoration had given him a purpose in life” and “carried him through the bleak years following Alice’s death” but also were a source of pain and even misery for Monet as he struggled with self-doubt about the quality of his work (in part because of his eyesight woes) but also because “he simply did not wish to relinquish his canvases while he still drew breath” (to the endless frustration of Monet’s supporters).
Though Monet is definitely the star, at the times the book is as much a biography of Georges Clemenceau aka “The Tiger,” the famous politician and stateman who served as prime minister of France twice, in his second time in office leading France through World War I, but also a very close friend and confidante to Monet and arguably one of the driving forces in Monet painting his water lily paintings and then fulfilling his promise to give them to the nation of France.
As the book spans several decades and wider world events affected both Monet and Clemenceau (and the art world), the book covers a good bit of French history as it relates the principal subjects of the book, giving a good feel for France during the Belle Époque, during World War I itself (with war shortages and travel restrictions directly impacting Monet down to whether he could get paint, his canvases, or even coal to warm his home), and the time after the war. Also a good sense of geography as well, particularly describing the setting in and around his studios and famed gardens and lily pond in Giverny (in northwestern France, detailed in maps) as well as descriptions of Paris relevant to the narrative. Also along the way, the reader gets treated to the areas in France most associated with Impressionism.
One of my favorite sections was one on the history and symbolism of water lilies in art and art history, how the water lily became as some critics suggested, “a substitution or replacement for the hidden or absent woman” or as another put it, “an evident sign of the feminine,” as Monet did not use female models owing to the firmly stated boundaries of Alice, who would not allow models in the house, something Monet never did again after marrying Alice, even after her death. I really loved how one female critic said she “felt herself turning into a water nymph” looking at the paintings, that “One has a sensation of being in the water, of being an inhabitant of the ponds, the lakes, and pools, of being a nixie with glaucous hair, a naiad with fluid arms, a nymph with fresh legs.” It isn’t for nothing that nymphéa Is “the most common French name for a water lily” and the word “obviously evokes nymphs (nymphes in French) the female deities of place, always represented as young girls, graceful and naked, who personify the forces of nature, haunting the waters, woods, and mountains” and later the connection was made more explicit by John Willian Waterhouse’s _Hylas and the Nymphs_, painted in 1896, which shows “bare-breasted young lovelies lurking among the lily pads, drawing the youth into the water.” As a person who has tried to research mermaids, sirens, naiads, nereids, and nymphs and incorporate them in his own writings, this was fascinating reading. I do intend to in the near future read about Waterhouse and his works.
The book has numerous black and white photos, color photos in plates in the center of the book, extensive end notes, a thorough index, select bibliography, maps, and a list of places where Monet’s water lily paintings are available for public viewing. Surprised to learn that art museums in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Toledo, Ohio all have water lily paintings. I myself though I went to the wonderful Toledo Museum of Art missed this, but I did see _Water Lilies_ when I visited the superb Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri (I highly recommend both museums).
This book can also be read as a biography of the last decades of Monet’s life, not just the time from 1914 (when he began the water lily paintings) till his death in 1926 (he basically worked on them till the end), but also of some time before that (though it is by no means a biography of Monet’s entire life). Great coverage of the trials and tribulations he faced, some tragic like the deaths of his beloved wife Alice and his eldest son Jean (who both died shortly before he began the Grande Décoration), some the result of getting old (the author going into detail on Monet’s struggle with worsening eyesight, even possibly blindness), but perhaps most of all own personal psychological struggles. It was very interesting to read how this grand project both was a lifesaver to Monet “[f]or the past ten years the Grande Décoration had given him a purpose in life” and “carried him through the bleak years following Alice’s death” but also were a source of pain and even misery for Monet as he struggled with self-doubt about the quality of his work (in part because of his eyesight woes) but also because “he simply did not wish to relinquish his canvases while he still drew breath” (to the endless frustration of Monet’s supporters).
Though Monet is definitely the star, at the times the book is as much a biography of Georges Clemenceau aka “The Tiger,” the famous politician and stateman who served as prime minister of France twice, in his second time in office leading France through World War I, but also a very close friend and confidante to Monet and arguably one of the driving forces in Monet painting his water lily paintings and then fulfilling his promise to give them to the nation of France.
As the book spans several decades and wider world events affected both Monet and Clemenceau (and the art world), the book covers a good bit of French history as it relates the principal subjects of the book, giving a good feel for France during the Belle Époque, during World War I itself (with war shortages and travel restrictions directly impacting Monet down to whether he could get paint, his canvases, or even coal to warm his home), and the time after the war. Also a good sense of geography as well, particularly describing the setting in and around his studios and famed gardens and lily pond in Giverny (in northwestern France, detailed in maps) as well as descriptions of Paris relevant to the narrative. Also along the way, the reader gets treated to the areas in France most associated with Impressionism.
One of my favorite sections was one on the history and symbolism of water lilies in art and art history, how the water lily became as some critics suggested, “a substitution or replacement for the hidden or absent woman” or as another put it, “an evident sign of the feminine,” as Monet did not use female models owing to the firmly stated boundaries of Alice, who would not allow models in the house, something Monet never did again after marrying Alice, even after her death. I really loved how one female critic said she “felt herself turning into a water nymph” looking at the paintings, that “One has a sensation of being in the water, of being an inhabitant of the ponds, the lakes, and pools, of being a nixie with glaucous hair, a naiad with fluid arms, a nymph with fresh legs.” It isn’t for nothing that nymphéa Is “the most common French name for a water lily” and the word “obviously evokes nymphs (nymphes in French) the female deities of place, always represented as young girls, graceful and naked, who personify the forces of nature, haunting the waters, woods, and mountains” and later the connection was made more explicit by John Willian Waterhouse’s _Hylas and the Nymphs_, painted in 1896, which shows “bare-breasted young lovelies lurking among the lily pads, drawing the youth into the water.” As a person who has tried to research mermaids, sirens, naiads, nereids, and nymphs and incorporate them in his own writings, this was fascinating reading. I do intend to in the near future read about Waterhouse and his works.
The book has numerous black and white photos, color photos in plates in the center of the book, extensive end notes, a thorough index, select bibliography, maps, and a list of places where Monet’s water lily paintings are available for public viewing. Surprised to learn that art museums in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Toledo, Ohio all have water lily paintings. I myself though I went to the wonderful Toledo Museum of Art missed this, but I did see _Water Lilies_ when I visited the superb Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri (I highly recommend both museums).
March 21, 2024
Such an interesting and well written book! Lots of WWI history as well as information about Monet’s later life. I read this to try and decide if I was going to have my 8th grader (who is very interested in art) read it along side our Monet picture study. The only thing you might want to preview before handing it over to a student would be in chapter 18 where the author decides to discuss how the water lilies *might* symbolize something sexual. He never even says Monet thought this or that there was any intention of them that way, it just feels like some Freudian thing that he had to slip in.
The other thing to consider is whether or not this book would feed into the “tortured artist” mentality that many artist in the formative years (and even later) fall into. Thinking they have to be miserable to produce good art, never being satisfied, nothing ever being good enough, destroying their art because they can’t see the good in it, etc. Monet destroyed something like over 500 of his canvases during his lifetime because he said they weren’t good enough. Even his “grand decoration” (massive water lilies pieces) has a slash in one place and he wouldn’t donate it until after his death because then, perhaps, the mistakes wouldn’t bother him as much.
If you’re interested in art (and/or WWI history in France) definitely check this out! I very much enjoyed it.
The other thing to consider is whether or not this book would feed into the “tortured artist” mentality that many artist in the formative years (and even later) fall into. Thinking they have to be miserable to produce good art, never being satisfied, nothing ever being good enough, destroying their art because they can’t see the good in it, etc. Monet destroyed something like over 500 of his canvases during his lifetime because he said they weren’t good enough. Even his “grand decoration” (massive water lilies pieces) has a slash in one place and he wouldn’t donate it until after his death because then, perhaps, the mistakes wouldn’t bother him as much.
If you’re interested in art (and/or WWI history in France) definitely check this out! I very much enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 318 reviews