The Artist’s Magazine – October 2019

60 Artists Magazine October 2019

and early-morning views painted

from a floating studio on the Seine.

A LICENSE TO FLATTEN

AND SIMPLIFY

As Monet began to focus more intently

on the effects of light, his composi-

tions became flatter and more frontal,

as in 1890’s The Canoe on the Epte

(below). Here, much of the composi-

tion is comprised of a view directly

into the swirling water. The boat cuts

across the composition as an almost-

flat motif while a band of foliage

takes up the top part of the painting.

The radical flattening and simplifica-

tion were influenced, no doubt, by

Japanese prints, which had become

increasingly popular after trade

with Japan was opened in the 1850s.

There’s also an influence from

photography, particularly in the way

the rowing figure is cropped by the

edge of the canvas. For Monet, the

license to flatten and simplify allowed

him to showcase what interested him

most: the subtle effects of color and

light across the painting’s surface.

As the artist aged, he traveled

less and focused increasingly on his

garden at Giverny. After buying a

conjoining plot of land, he expanded

his pond and built a Japanese bridge.

He imported exotic water lilies, and

the interplay of flowers, sun and

water allowed him to explore the

effects of reflection, depth and dap-

pled light in a long series of views of

the bridge. Mostly square in format,

these compositions, such as Water

Lilies and Japanese Bridge (opposite),

omit the sky and plunge the viewer

into the visual wealth of water and

plants, with the eye anchored by the

strong geometry of the bridge.

A LEGACY OF

WATER LILIES

There was more tragedy in the artist’s

life when Alice died in 1912 and his

LEFT

The Canoe

on the Epte

by Claude Monet

ca 1890; 52½ x57½

COLLECTION MUSEU DE

ARTE DE SÃO PAULO ASSIS

CHATEAUBRIAND

PHOTO CREDIT:

EDUARDO ORTEGA

OPPOSITE

Water Lilies and

Japanese Bridge

by Claude Monet

1899; oil on canvas,

35 ⅝ x35⁵⁄₁^6

FROM THE PRINCETON

UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM:

COLLECTION OF WILLIAM

CHURCH OSBORN, CLASS

OF 1883, TRUSTEE OF

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

(1914–1951), PRESIDENT OF

THE METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM OF ART (1941–1947);

GIVEN BY HIS FAMILY

PHOTO CREDIT: PRINCETON

UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM

son Jean died the following year.

Monet would spend the remaining

14 years of his life tended by his step-

daughter Blanche. His troubles were

exacerbated by increasing difficulties

with his vision, due to cataracts.

Nevertheless, he pressed on, driven

by an idea he’d had in mind for some

time. “... the temptation came to me

to use this water lily theme for the dec-

oration of a drawing room,” he told the

critic Roger Marx, “carried along the

walls, enveloping all the partitions

with its unity, it would have produced

the illusion of an endless whole, of a

wave with no horizon and no shore;

nerves exhausted by work would have

relaxed there, following the restful

example of those stagnant waters,

and to anyone who would have lived

in that room would have offered a

refuge of peaceful meditation in the

middle of a flowering aquarium.”

Slowly, Monet turned this vision

into reality. Building a large studio to