Water Lilies- Claude Monet

By: Tori Brandon

*(Find a famous work of art. Write a researched history of the artist and the artwork and create a

descriptive poem that uses imagery to describe the artwork and your reaction to it.)

This is 1899’s display of Monet’s Water Lilies in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

There are many series of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, he created this type of painting over and

over for several years, completing multiple series. Monet painted more than 250 Water Lilies

paintings, the first series was 25 canvases in the 1990’s, 9 years later a second series of 48

canvases was created. Monet was obsessed with perfecting this painting over the years. His goals

were to create a painting of exactly how he saw the landscapes of water and the reflection. Most

do not know that Monet planted each water lily before he painted them. After Monet’s wife
 passed in 1914, he drastically changed his water lilies paintings by making his canvas

dramatically bigger, they were around two meters (6ft) squares. He also started using brighter

colors with the flowers and landscape images. Even when Monet had reached 82 years old and

found out he had a cataract and his right eye was affected, he continued to paint his magnificent

water lilies, even after three eye surgeries and that’s how he created Water Lilies- Japanese

Bridge in 1923. There is several of his famous water lilies paintings on display in Paris around

12 and is a whole series called Water Lilies Series in the Orangerie, Paris. Monet spent his last

couple of years of life dedicated to finish his work of art for the politician Clemenceau, who was

the Prime Minister of France. This large painting is displayed in the Orangerie in the Tuileries.

Before his death Monet also created his last and final masterpiece in 1926, called Water Lilies

Pond, Evening Panel.

 This is Monet’s piece of a series created in 1915

This was Claude Monet’s last work of art and is in Orangerie, Paris. Created in 1926.
My poem: Lilies so dark yet so bright. Never the same but always right. They capture my breath
within the water. To see it in person I would spend every quarter. So colorful and happy but so
filled with pain. To see Monet’s goal constantly close but never obtained. Many filled with such
bounty and grace. None are the same each with different face. Every brush stroke so glorious
than the last. But somehow each stroke is never like the past. Such great amazement falls upon
me. Seeing such artwork done so beautifully. The lilies, landscape and reflection are beyond
heavenly. I am stunned to know he did this beyond age seventy.
Claude Monet was no ordinary man; he was a genius of his time. He did artwork unlike anyone
else, he refused to settle for just mediocre he wanted to be the best of the best. He strived his
whole life and painting career to have a painting created in his own images of what he saw to be
his Water Lilies. He was obsessed even that he just had to have his perfect painting, he almost
drove himself mad. He refused to quit no matter what go in his way or tried to ruin his dream. He
is inspirational to all artists and dreamers around. He finally reached his goal on his last year of
life to create his image and not just that but the largest scale of paintings in that time period. He
went down in history and will always be remembered. Not just for his lily collection but for
many other paintings in between those times he created.
Citing's: 10 Facts You Might Not Know About Claude Monet, Claude Monet’s Biography
https://www.claude-monet.com/waterlilies.jsp#prettyPhoto
Pictures From- Water Lilies (Monet Series) Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Lilies_(Monet_series)