Hermosillo 1

Victoria Hermosillo
Prod. Lisa Endresen
ARTH 1310

Water lilies
Claude Monets piece titled Waterlilies part of the very important art movement,
impressionist. This piece was made in 1916 and finished in 1919 inspired by Monet water lilies
he owned from his own pond. The pieces present location is the McNay Museum, and its
original location was Giverny. The piece is oil on canvas, and it can only be seen from one side
because it is hanging on the wall. In this essay I will analyze Waterlilies to demonstrated the
emotions, meaning, and mood evokes through this painting.
French Impressionist Claude Monet created a series of approximately 250 oil paintings
called Water Lilies each one completely unique but with the same theme. The paintings was
inspired by Monet's flower garden at Giverny and was the main focus of Monet's artistic
production during the last thirty years of his life. Although he has other great paintings this is
what made him the great impressionist painter he was.
The variations in the magnificent Water Lilies murals were his crowning achievement. In
all of these, it is the changes in light and shadow, more than the landscape itself, that are the
subject. "The subject is secondary," Monet affirmed (Wildenstein). "What I want to reproduce is
what lies between the subject and myself" (Wildenstein). In the painting, for example, Monet
combined a strict economy of theme with swift agitated brush strokes, allowing the canvas to
show through the sumptuous, predominantly blue background, giving it great visual importance.

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In the Waterlilies painting, the absence of all references to the pond's perimeter, the
swirling brush strokes, and the unfinished edges of the canvas served to reinforce Monet's
affiliation with modernity. His vertical interpretation of the horizontal surface of the water
contributed to the demise of traditional modes of representation. What emerges in these works is
a new tension between surface and depth of perspective. Sometimes the natural surroundings are
conveyed only through reflections, while figurative elements break down into flickering spots of
pigment. Within Monet's fluid compositions, our looks tend to glide over the surface, taking in
the painting itself, sensing the water and the vegetation rendered in broad, and strokes. In a
desire to make nature his main source of inspiration, Monet paradoxically broke through into the
realm of abstraction.
Monets Water Lilies is approximately a 250 series painting that is large, enormous
compared to me, a tall girl. By making his painting life size, Monet immerses the viewer in his
art and physically puts him in this work. We actually feel like we are there we see what he was
seeing through his paintings. This painting was done in oil paints but because Monet used so
little paint, it looks almost like watercolors. Many people get this confused not knowing the
difference.
The subject matter of this painting is over all water lilies in a pond. This work of art
would be considered a landscape subject matter and while at the time that is the second most
important thing they paint during that time. In this painting, because the paint was put on so
lightly and delicately, it gives off a dream like feeling and doesnt remind us of a traditional
landscape, something Monet tended to avoid.
There is no specific organization or arrangement to the composition of this work of art. I
believe he just painted as he saw it. There might be a generic overall theme in the center but it is

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not a predominate one to his use of brush strokes and the size of the whole work. The audience
eyes are able to glaze over the entire painting and view it as a whole. When I saw it it was too
much to take in just standing there and seeing all the details laying my eyes on each lily. There is
no real sense of recession into space created into this piece. The painting is so un-naturalistic that
with the combination of the color and the extreme cropping, viewers need to remind themselves
that the subject matter they are looking at is water lilies and not just blur of colors.
There is a single unseen light source coming from the top of the painting while not
actually being in the painting. Monet was also able to do this painting without putting too much
detail into any one place, everything has equal detail. Even though the audience is able to see the
picture as a whole, the focal point might be around the middle due to the much lighter colors
used there. This does happen to be some sense of normalcy in this painting. Meaning, there is
nothing natural about the way Monet uses these colors in this piece but the repetition of brush
strokes gives some order to the chaos. Because Monet made his paint so thin, he was able to give
the painting a smoothed over look instead of a normal oil painting where the spectators eyes
might get caught in the visible texture of the paint.
In this series of paintings, the water is made up of mostly thin vertical strokes while the
lilies are either circular swirls or dabs of color. This painting also has a fuzzy or blurry quality to
the paint. While it adds a lot to the quality of the piece, the painting is like this because Monet, at
the time, was suffering from cataracts which affected his sight. This also made it harder for him
to distinguish lines in nature but made it easier for him to put less distinction in his lines in his
painting.
Impressionists wanted the viewer to pay more attention to how the artist felt about what
he or she was painting rather than focusing on the importance of what they were looking at.

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Monet does a wonderful job in portraying how he felt about this place he was painting. This
work evokes a sense of peace with the use of composition, stroke quality, and color.
Water Lilies bears the hallmarks of Impressionism in its blurred, painterly brushstrokes
and vivid colors, but decorative flourishes and a subtle compositional harmony are woven
through the painting. Despite the revolutionary aura of Monets art, the duality of Water
Lilies reveals not just an impression, but also a more nuanced approach to art that is
compositionally, chromatically and texturally considerate.
Have you ever looked at a pond and squinted your eyes? Well if you have you would
know exactly how Claude Monet felt. Around the time of this painting Monet was losing his
eyesight. It seems to me that this painting was actually meant to be realistic, Monet just painted
what he saw, how he saw it. It's kind of weird how he achieved this fuzzy look, he doesn't use
any real hard edges on any of the forms, but they aren't really faded that much either. This could
just be the use of alike colors (in this case green and blue) which make the edges of the lilies fade
into the edge of the water.
Originally I wasnt going to do Monet since Im already doing a project on him but I fell
in love with his work. The way he sees things then translating them to a beautiful painting is just
astounding to me. When I first saw this painting I didnt really see the feeling that Monet was
trying to convey. The second time I saw it gave me the message that as you get older things start
to fall apart and get fuzzy. It also seems to be the same message in all the paintings after that,
because they seem to get weirder and more abstract. Like he cant even control what's going on
in his own life. Claude Money was the best impressionist art will ever have the way he paints is
one of a kind and his painting Waterlilies is a timeless art piece.

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Work Cited
"Claude Monet." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.
"Claude Monet Water Lilies." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, I.e. The Met Museum.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
Brettell, Richard. Post-Impressionists. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago and New
York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987, p. 111-12.Print.
Lewis, Richard, and Susan I. Lewis. "Impressionism." The Power of Art. 3rd ed. Boston:
Wadsworth, 2010. 374-77. Print
Wildenstein, Daniel, and Claude Monet. Monet, Or, The Triumph of Impressionism. Koln:
Taschen, 2014. Print.

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Bibliography
"Claude Monet." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2016. This
source was used so I can better understand the history during that time. To know about his eye
condition and connect why he would paint blurry but in reality it wasnt his fault. I was able to
make connection between the history during that time and his paintings.
"Claude Monet Water Lilies." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, I.e. The Met Museum.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2016. The McNay didnt have much
information about Monet. This gave me an over all description of Monets water lilies collections
and the details of how big it is. The website then led to be to more information like the type of
paint and material he used. This source was just a general source that was just for the location
and measurements not so much for details.
Brettell, Richard. Post-Impressionists. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago and New
York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987, p. 111-12.Print. Although is is a post-impressionist book I learned
what impressionist actually was the the different ways artist would paint it. Informed of the
different type of brushes stokes and materials they would use. Mostly importantly it taught me
what people might have thought wile painting or to look at a piece.
Lewis, Richard, and Susan I. Lewis. "Impressionism." The Power of Art. 3rd ed. Boston:
Wadsworth, 2010. 374-77. Print. This source the help because it explained the impressionist
movement during Monets time. Discussed the techniques he used and his vision. Also it
compared his work with other impressionist of the time. So I was able to understand why he
would paint the the way he did.

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Wildenstein, Daniel, and Claude Monet. Monet, Or, The Triumph of Impressionism. Koln:
Taschen, 2014. Print. Was a good Monet book explained the painting of Monets and his visions
he had. How his sight was one factor of his style of painting and how late it affected him
emotionally. Explained why he is the great impressionist people love now and why his work
stands out the most. Also talk about his obsessions with the ponds and how he fought for them.

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