room, as four of the artist’s
seven Wisteria canvases
are brought together. Each
measuring more than two
metres wide, they are
dominated by superimposed
layers of blues and greens,
with the individual
brushstrokes only visible
in the top layer.
The compositions all crop
tightly upon a single section
of the plant hanging over
the water with no clues to
the apparent vantage point,
yet by varying between hard
and soft edges Monet
cleverly manages to convey
a senseofdepthwithintheabstraction.
Themuseum’sownversionofWisteria,
paintedbetween 1917 and1920,hashungin
theDutchgalleryforalmost 60 years,yetit was
onlyduringconservationworkforthisexhibition
thatrestorerRuthHoppediscoveredit was
hidinga hugesecret.Damagetothestretchersuggested the canvas had been in the studio
when the window was smashed during the war,
so when further x-rays were carried out, it was
revealed that a version of his Water Lily series
was originally painted underneath. Monet wasn’t
one to reuse canvases in this way very often, so
this suggests a link between the earlier water lily
paintings and the later, more abstract Wisteria.
As tens of thousands of visitors flood to visit
Giverny or the next great Monet exhibition, it is
hard to imagine there was a time when the great
Impressionist co-founder’s work was ever
considered passe. Yet between his death on
5 December 1926 and his slow reemergence
as an influential force in American post-war
painting, his pictures were deemed just that.
That rehabilitation of Monet’s reputation is set
to continue with The Garden Paintings exhibition,
aswecantrulyunderstandhowfaltering
eyesightanda focusonaneverydaysubjectwas
nobarrierfortheartisttocreateworksthatwere
bothcomfortinglyfamiliarandbracinglymodern.
Monet:TheGardenPaintingsrunsfrom 12 October
to2 FebruaryattheGemeentemuseumDenHaagin
TheHague,Holland.www.gemeentemuseum.nl/enTOP Claude Monet,
En Norvégienne,
1887, oil on canvas,
97.5x130.5cm
ABOVE Monet at
Giverny in 1921
MUSÉE D’ORSAY.