Monet at MoMA

At the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA for short, two Claude Monet paintings can be found on display.  They are great examples of his later work and worth seeking out.

Claude Monet (age 81), photographed by Nadar in 1921

Nymphéas, or Water Lilies, 1914-1926

Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond, 1920

The two paintings above were completed near or at the end of Monet's life.  Because the painting style is abstract and amorphous, you might wonder if his eyesight was impaired.  It was, due to cataracts.  Oddly, his condition might have affected his color perception but does not really explain his painting style.  By comparing paintings executed at the end of Monet's life with modern photographs of his lily pond at Giverny, a town near Paris, it seems more likely that his vision was strong enough to allow him to accurately perceive the image before him but paint it in his impressionist style.

 

The two Monet paintings at MoMA are large canvasses, each measuring more than 6-1/2 feet high and 19-1/2 wide.  Viewed close up, they do not resemble much of anything.  Blobs of paint forming shapeless images are one description of an up-close view.  To perceive what appears on the canvas requires standing back from the painting, 10 feet or more.  So, Monet must have likewise stood back from the canvas and painted with a very long-handled brush.  Right?  In fact, Monet stood close to his canvases like a typical painter but was able to envision how the small area he was painting was part of a large tableau.  If seeing is believing, then click here for a short film from 1915 showing Monet at work.