what does claude monet 's painting of water-lillies mean?

Question

i need to have an idea of what he was thinking when he was painting it.how does one interpret it?

Answer 1

The variations on a theme in the magnificent Water-Lily 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. "What I want to reproduce is what lies between the subject and myself." At the beginning of World War I, Monet conceived the idea of the cycle of water-lily murals, works now in the collection Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris. This project, which spanned the last years of Monet's life, is one of his greatest legacies. In these large panels, as well as in the smaller, more intimate studies, the subject tends to disappear, giving way to modulations of color. Monet labored relentlessly despite the fact that his sight, increasingly blurred by cataracts, slowed down his work. He refined these canvases, which are much more than direct transcriptions of the movements of water and the effects of light. In the water-lily painting of 1916-17, for example, Monet combines a strict economy of theme with swift agitated brush strokes, allowing the canvas to show through the sumptuous, predominantly blue background, thus giving it great visual importance.

In the water lily paintings, 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 gaze tends to glide over the surface, savoring the paint itself, sensing the water and the vegetation rendered in broad, luxuriant strokes. In a desire to make nature his main source of inspiration, Monet paradoxically broke through into the realm of abstraction.

Answer 2

Monet Water Lilies Analysis

Answer 3

Water lillies are an integral part of his home at Giverny, in France. The Gardens of Giverny are famous for the trees, flowers and Japanese bridge that spans the pond on the property. The inclusion of the water lillies and the shadows of the trees are a highlight of his paintings. More subtle, but equally prominent in his painting is the use of light to affect the painting. The colors were bright early in the morning, and as the day progressed, the sunlight would change to dusk and the impact would change a picture dramatically. Nowhere is this more visible that at the Marmottan Museum in Paris which holds many of his paintings. You will view literally the same scene, but the shift in lighting makes it a separate and new work.

Answer 4

Ethos, Vincent van Gogh's work was Post-Impressionistic. Claude Monet's work was Impressionist. Monet's work was very "soft-focus", while van Gogh's work was a unique style no one has replicated, and more like he was "drawing with paint" as my figure drawing professor once said. Monet's work was about showing the light, while van Gogh's was about the subjects of his work. That's my own impressions about them, not anything from an art history text. What I see when I study the two of them, both of which vie for my favorite artist, is that Monet used a shorter, squarer, stroke in his work. Van Gogh used long streaks of paint to create his work.

Answer 5

I had to do a paper on this for my Art History.

Don't look for subliminal messages in these works, because I don't believe there are any.

This painting is the culmination of Monet's search to represent all visual experiences as pure light, something he called "instantaneity", and needs to be considered together with his other works.

The attached essay is a good basic analysis of his style, rather than just "Water Lilies".

Hope this is of some help.

Answer 6

Later in life, Monet was very fond of painting controlled nature. He painted water lilies in his own garden. He had served in the cavalry in Algiers, where he contracted typhoid, and fled France to England to avoid the Franco-Prussian war. So you can see how an elderly man who has seen too much of the chaos of war might wish to spend his days in his pretty ordered garden,