The work ‘Water Lilies’ is one of the 48 paintings of these exotic aquatic plants that the master of light produced for an exhibition at the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris in 1909.
The painting Water Lilies, by the French master Claude Monet (1840-1926), is one of the two works by that artist that can be seen for the first time in Mexico at the Lights of Impressionism exhibition, which opens on April 26 at the Museum National of Art (Mundial).
In total there will be three pieces by the painter that will be exhibited in dialogue with landscapes from the collection of the Mexican venue.
Water Lilies, made in 1908, is part of the Water Lilies series, which the artist made at the end of his life. The paintings that come to the country belong to the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA).
It is one of the 48 paintings of these colorful and exotic aquatic plants that the master of light produced for the 1909 exhibition at the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris.
This canvas has the peculiarity that its format is tondo or circular, as described by the Texan enclosure, reminiscent of Renaissance models, particularly rare in Monet’s work.
“These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession.
They are beyond the powers of an old man; however, I want to succeed in representing what I perceive”, acknowledged the French painter, who in the last three decades of his life became absorbed in the beauty of the lotuses, taking care of his garden in Giverny, a small French town in the west of Paris, his home since 1883.
At first he focused on growing flowers, but in the last decade of the 19th century he began creating Japanese-style water gardens.
“I follow nature without being able to grasp it; perhaps I owe it to the flowers that I became a painter”, reiterated one of the founders of French impressionism.
Along with artists such as Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, Manet and Cézanne, Monet was the founder of the artistic movement that went beyond the limits established by the academies to propose new ways of reproducing color and light.
It was his painting Impression: Rising Sun that gave rise to the name by which the movement was known, which spread to other parts, for example, to music, as in the case of Claude Debussy, another lover of nature.
A decisive factor was the possibility of leaving the workshops to paint outdoors. Monet traveled the coasts of the Mediterranean and Normandy, and was captivated by the scenes of the River Thames in London or the architecture in Venice.
But it was in his garden where he found the main reason, shot down between blindness and melancholy. In three decades he created more than 250 Giverny paintings.
Some focus on the bridge that spans the pond; many stand out for the reflections on the surface of the water.
I played with the light according to the changes during the different hours of the day. He divided his life between caring for plants and dedicating himself to canvases.