Claude Monet: Water Lilies

by Claude Monet (Artist), Ann Temkin (Contributor), Nora Lawrence (Contributor)

Claude Monet (1840-1926) devoted the last 25 years of his career to paintings of the Japanese-style pond and gardens of his house in Giverny, France. Two of these luminous panels--"Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond," a mural-sized triptych, and "Water Lilies," a single canvas--are among the most well-known and beloved works in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. The aim of these paintings, according to the artist, was to supply "the illusion of an endless whole, of water without horizon or bank." These late works were for many years less appreciated than Monet's classic Impressionist works, oftentimes seen as unstructured, even unfinished. But with the emergence of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, Monet became an extraordinarily relevant predecessor. In 1955, The Museum of Modern Art became the first American museum to acquire one of Monet's large-scale water lily compositions. In 1958, when a fire destroyed this and another water lily painting, the public's widespread expression of loss led to the acquisition of the works currently in the collection. This lively volume recounts the history of Monet's water lilies at the Museum underscores the resonance of these paintings with the art and artists of the last half-century.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Adult

48 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1980

About the author

Claude Monet also known as Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting.

Reviews

[Shayna Chicas · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first I wasn't sure if it was Monet's life that was dull, or the writing.
As I read a bit more I decided on the writing.
I simply just did not like the style or how it was executed. I felt like I was reading a history book with a comments on when Monet moved and married again. I get it, it's a biography of a historical figure so yes history will be included, but as I stated previously the writing was just dull.

[Audra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love monet

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not actually “read” this book. I was looking for pictures to share with an elementary art class so this review is mainly on image content.

This is a small book so there are not a ton of pictures and half are black-and-white. I was intrigued by many of the image choices though. There were some unexpected works by Monet that I had never seen before (Agapanthus, 1914) and a beautiful reproduction of a haystack in the snow which I want to make a mental note of. There were also a surprising number of more recent works, including works by Andy Warhol, Barnett Newman, Pablo Picasso, and Jackson Pollock. I’m sure the text makes many interesting comparisons there.

Overall, not enough Monet for my purposes and not enough of the images were in color. This is, however, certainly a book I would be interested in revisiting and actually read.

[Heather Blackburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just really love Monet. I enjoyed this book showcasing Monet at the MoMA and liked the information about how the paintings came to be there. I think I’ll have to buy a more in depth book now so I can learn more.

[cow girl · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh yeah, i forgot that art history is kind of cool

[Eliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

2015 Reading Challenge: A non-fiction book