Impressionism: Monet's Lily Garden in Giverny

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This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.

Claude Monet was a French impressionist painter who lived from 1840 to 1926.  This gallery contains the works of art in which he become well known for during his career as an artist.  Even though the subject matter for each painting is similar, each painting is unique in its own way. His lily garden of Giverny was favored by the artist, which included the Japanese bridge and the pond full of his lilies.                                                                ~ Joseph Adams

The Japanese Footbridge and the Water Lily Pool, Giverny, Claude Monet, French, 1840 - 1926, 1899, From the collection of: Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Japanese Footbridge and the Water Lily Pool was one of Claude Monet's more recognized pieces of art. This painting showcases Monet's lily garden at Giverny, which he spent most of his time painting. What was so great about Monet was his use of colors. In this painting he managed to make the greens stand out and look natural. Green is one of the harder colors to paint with, and could easily muddy up a painting.
Another painting showcasing Monet's water lilies and use of color. This painting may seem a little blurry even for a painting of the impressionistic style. This was due to Monet's failing eye sight due to cataracts. Even while the artist himself was going literally blind from the cataracts, he still managed to create a beautiful work of art with vibrant blues and purples that contrast nicely with the greens.
Waterlilies, Claude Monet, 1904, From the collection of: MuMa - Musée d'art moderne André Malraux
This is one of Monet's earlier works of his lily garden series, and you can tell by the cleaner and tighter brush strokes. He was able to achieve this because his cataracts have yet to have been a bothersome to the artists vision. You can tell that this painting was either done late in the day or before the sun arose in the morning time.
Waterlilies, Claude Monet, 1907, From the collection of: Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art
Another earlier work of Monet of his water lily garden. This painting contains warmer colors than most of his other water lily paintings. The use of yellows and light greens gives this painting the characteristics of the pond either as the sun was setting or was rising.
Waterlilies, Claude Monet, c.1906, From the collection of: Ohara Museum of Art
This painting has characteristics of something you would see at Monet's lily garden of Giverny during the height of daytime. The pond was incorporated with nice heavy brush strokes and includes reflections of the trees that surround the garden.
The Water Lilies - Clear Morning with Willows, Claude Monet, 1915/1926, From the collection of: Musée de l'Orangerie
This painting is unique because of its dimensions and provides a good landscape of the pond during the morning time. Monet managed to capture the feeling of morning with his cooler colors used and even gave the painting a hazy feel. This hazy feel may be due to his weakening vision from the cataracts.
Blue Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1916 - 1919, From the collection of: Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Blue Water Lilies a later painting of his series again includes the fuzzy brush strokes, but still manages to include very vibrant blue colors for the pond and the green in this painting was done a little poorly compared to his other works. The green lilies do not look as natural as they have in his earlier work.
Nympheas, Claude Monet, 1914/1917, From the collection of: The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma
This Water Lily painting is one of my favorites because of the colors that he used for the water lilies themselves. That color purple that he added gives the painting a ton of character, and helps give life to the water lily in the painting. The painting is balanced nicely with the brush strokes in the top right of the painting with the flowers and colors used in the bottom left.
The Japanese Bridge, Claude Monet, 1919/1924, From the collection of: Van Gogh Museum
Compared to one of Monet's first paintings of the Japanese footbridge, you can greatly see the affects of Monet's ailing eyes from the cataracts. Even though the painting is extremely blurry, he still was able to achieve the outline of the bridge. His perception of color was also greatly affected as you can see how muddy the greens are.
The Japanese Footbridge, Giverny, Claude Monet, c. 1922, From the collection of: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Even though this painting is hard to make out what it is, it still has some interesting characteristics. It has some very warm colors, and almost gives the viewer the feeling that the bridge was on fire. This most have been during sunset since this is the only time in which you would see these colors. Monet's eyesight again was affected greatly from his cataracts, and this painting was completed four years before Monet's death at the age of 86.
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This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.
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