"Water Lilies, Twilight Effect" 1897 Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris
"Monet: The Water Lilies" (National Museum of Western Art) report.
//Summary - Level-C2//
The "Monet: Water Lilies" exhibition at the National Museum of Western Art celebrates 150 years since Impressionism's inception, showcasing 64 masterpieces. Highlights include works from Monet's late years, revealing his evolving abstraction and experimentation. Key themes explore his fascination with water, light, and emotional depth, culminating in iconic decorative panels and expressive late-series paintings.
1)
This year marks 150 years since the first Impressionist exhibition was held in Paris in 1874. The National Museum of Western Art is holding an exhibition of works by Claude Monet, a leading French Impressionist painter, entitled "Monet: Water Lilies".
2)
Monet created the series of paintings "Haystacks" and "Water Lilies" that are widely loved in Japan, but this exhibition focuses on the changes in the artist's work and expression in his later years. About 50 carefully selected works, including works being shown in Japan for the first time, will be brought to Japan from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, which has one of the largest Monet collections in the world. A total of 64 masterpieces, including works in Japan, will be assembled.
3)
Later expressions on the surface of the Seine
Monet, who had been living in Giverny, a small village in Normandy, since 1883, bought the land and house there in 1890, when he was 50, and used it as his last studio and home. Although the Giverny garden would later become synonymous with Monet, it was not until he moved there that he arrived at Water Lilies' soft colours and warm light.
4)
The main subjects in the late 1890s were the landscapes of London and the Seine, which Monet visited. Chapter 1 focuses, in particular, on the waterfront and the paintings before Water Lilies.
5)
One of the most remarkable works is Boating (1887), which opens the book. The sitters are Suzanne and Blanche, Monet's stepdaughters with Alice Hoschedé, who later became his wife. The water's surface, which takes up most of the painting, reflects the seasons and weather like a giant 'mirror', and the depiction of the water's shimmering surface and the upside-down landscape is a work that foreshadows the Water Lilies he would later paint.
6)
Obsessed with water and reflected landscapes
Chapter 2 focuses on the refreshing flowers that bloomed in the Giverny garden and Monet's decorative paintings. Monet began to paint large-scale decorative paintings during the Impressionist period in the 1870s. In the 1890s, as he explored the effect of exhibiting a series of paintings, he became fascinated by the idea of a decorative painting consisting of just one subject: water lilies.
7)
Water Lilies, Effect of Dusk (1897) is one of Monet's first water lily paintings. Unlike the paintings of his later years, this work focuses on the white flowers rather than the light on the surface of the water or the colours of the sunset.
8)
The highlight of this exhibition is the large number of large-scale works. The three decorative paintings to be exhibited in the Hôtel Biron have a powerful presence in the exhibition room in Chapter 2. In 1920, Monet donated decorative panels of water lilies, but this project was not carried out due to financial problems at the venue.
The works that were not donated were eventually used to decorate the Orangerie, but only Agapanthus (1914-17) was abandoned. It could be considered Monet's phantom flower.
9)
Enjoy the space of the Orangerie Museum
Go down the stairs and enter the Orangerie Museum, famous for its unique curves. This space was specially created to allow you to experience Monet's masterpieces and immerse yourself in this world. There is also a photo area where you can take that particular shot in front of the coveted water lilies.
10)
Among the Water Lilies series, characterised by their fantastic deep blue Water Lilies, Reflection of Willows (1916) stands out for its missing upper half. This work was lost after the Second World War but was discovered in a damaged state at the Louvre in 2016.
It is also a work that Kojiro Matsukata, who built the Matsukata Collection, bought directly from Monet's house in 1921. This is the only valuable panel that Monet, who hated showing his large decorative paintings to the public, allowed to be sold during his lifetime.
11)
Monet's abstraction, resonant colours
Chapter 4 focuses on works that symbolise the change in Monet's expression in his later years. The symptoms of cataracts around 1908 changed his colour vision in his last years.
Although he complained of pain, Monet refused to undergo surgery until 1923 and even worked by pointing out the colours and their position on the palette. This exhibition shows Monet's last series of paintings, which gradually become more abstract.
12)
From 1918 to 1924, Monet produced the Japanese Bridge series, a series of 24 paintings based on the Japanese-style drum bridge at Giverny.
In contrast to the serene Water Lilies shown in Chapter 3, these paintings from his last years are somewhat noisy, and the brushstrokes and colours are mixed. Opposite them is his last easel series, The Artist's House from a Rose Garden (c.1922-24). Monet's experimental spirit is evident in the fiery colours and rough handling.
13)
Depicting the ups and downs of the heart
This exhibition focuses on the works and the historical context in which they were created. "It may be shameful to think about trivial things like shapes and colours when so many people are suffering and losing their lives.
14)
But it is the only way for me to escape from this sadness," Monet wrote in 1914 when he began work on the large decorative painting. It was also the year in which the First World War began.
When the armistice was signed in 1918, Monet offered to donate part of the sizeable decorative painting to the French state. With its tearful appearance, the willow tree is said to have been a motif symbolising sadness and mourning. The epilogue again touches the heart with the depth of Monet's expression.
15)
How was the expression "Water Lilies" created at the end of a long journey? Don't miss this exhibition, which was full of the profound world of decorative painting and Monet's originality and experimental spirit in his later years.
"Monet: The Water Lilies" (National Museum of Western Art) report. Get to the heart of Monet's later work with his masterpieces, including those shown in Japan for the first time
: https://www.tokyoartbeat.com/articles/-/monet-the-late-waterscape-report-202410
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https://s.mxtv.jp/tokyomxplus/mx/article/202108281150/detail/
"Monet: The Water Lilies" National Museum of Western Art
https://www.kimonoichiba.com/media/column/1378/
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Japonisme
Japonisme is a French term coined in the late nineteenth century to describe the craze for Japanese art and design in the West
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/j/japonisme
Japonism refers to the trend towards Japanese culture popular in Western countries in the late 19th century and the phenomenon of Japanese art influencing a wide range of artistic works overseas.
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