Nymphéas bleus
"Nymphaea" is the botanical name for a water lily. Monet grew white water lilies in the water garden he had installed in his property at Giverny in 1893. From the 1910s until he died in 1926, the garden and its pond in particular, became the artist's sole source of inspiration. He said: "I have come back to things that are impossible to do: water with weeds waving in the depths. Apart from painting and gardening, I am good for nothing. My greatest masterpiece is my garden."
Eliminating the horizon and the sky, Monet focused on a small area of the pond, seen as a piece of nature, almost a close-up. No details stand out and the overall impression is one of a shapeless surface. The square format reinforces the neutrality of the composition. The lack of a frame of reference gives the fragment an infinite, limitless feeling.
Never was the artist's brushstroke so free, so detached from the description of forms. A close-up view of the canvas gives a feeling of total abstraction, because the brushstrokes are stronger than the identification of the plants or their reflections. The viewer has to make a constant visual and mental effort to piece together the landscape suggested in the painting. The unfinished borders accentuate this insistence on painting as a surface covered with paint, which was not lost on artists after the Second World War, particularly American painters exploring "abstract landscapes" and "lyrical abstraction."
avec cadre H. 208,3 ; L. 208,6 cm
- collection Michel Monet, fils de l'artiste, Giverny
- collection E. Tériade, Paris
- 1981, acquis par les musées nationaux pour le musée d'Orsay (comité du 19/03/1981, conseil du 25/03/1981, arrêté du 02/09/1981)
- 1981, attribué au musée d'Orsay, Paris
- Hommage à Claude Monet - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1980
- Les Chefs-d'oeuvre de Jackson Pollock - musée national d'art moderne - France, Paris, 1982
- Monet in the 20th century - Museum of Fine Arts - Etats-Unis, Boston, 1998
- Monet in the 20th century - Royal Academy of Arts - Royaume-Uni, Londres, 1999
- Claude Monet 1840-1926 - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 2010-2011
- Les Clefs d'une passion - fondation Louis Vuitton - France, Paris, 2015
- Au-delà des étoiles. Le paysage mystique de Monet à Kandinsky - musée d'Orsay - France, Paris, 2017
- Nymphéas. L’abstraction new-yorkaise et le dernier Monet - musée de l'Orangerie - France, Paris, 2018
- Les origines du monde. L’invention de la nature au XIXe - musée d'Orsay - France, Paris, 2021
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Patin, Sylvie, Monet, Paris, Musée d'Orsay ; Skira ; Flammarion, 2011, p.30-31, reprod. p.30 (détail) et p.33
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(dir.) Cogeval, Guy, Le Musée d'Orsay à 360 degrés, Paris, Skira ; Flammarion ; Musée d'Orsay, 2013, p. 346
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Lacambre, Geneviève ; Thiébaut, Philippe, Catalogue sommaire illustré des nouvelles acquisitions du Musée d'Orsay 1980-1983, cat. exp. (Paris, palais de Tokyo - site de création contemporaine, du 01 mars au 31 décembre 1984), Paris, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1983, p. 24, repr. p. 25, n° 63
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Stevens, MaryAnne ; Shackelford, George T. M. ; Tucker, Paul Hayes ; Golan, Romy ; House, John ; Leja, Michael, Monet in the 20th century, cat. exp. (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, du 20/09/1998 au 27/12/1998 ; Londres, Royal Academy of Arts, du 23/01/1999 au 18/04/1999), Londres ; Boston, Royal Academy of Arts ; Museum of Fine Arts, 1998, n° 62
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Patin, Sylvie ; Patry, Sylvie ; Roquebert, Anne ; Thomson, Richard, Monet, cat.exp. (Paris, Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, Paris, 22 septembre 2010-24 janvier 2011), Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux ; Musée d'Orsay, 2010, n° 169, p. 344
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Bossi, Laura ; Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Nina M. ; Baglione, Gabrielle ; Blanckaert, Claude, Les origines du monde : l’invention de la nature au XIXe siècle, cat. exp. (Paris, musée d’Orsay, du 19 mai au 18 juillet 2021), Paris, Gallimard, 2020, cat. 197, p. 285 (reprod. coul.) ; p. 281
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Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet : catalogue raisonné Claude Monet. 1, 1840-1881, peintures, Paris, Bibliothèque des Arts ; Wildenstein institute, 1974, n°1853
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Compin, Isabelle ; Roquebert, Anne, Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du Musée du Louvre et du Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, vol.4, p.108
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Compin, Isabelle [coordination] ; Lacambre, Geneviève [coordination] ; Roquebert, Anne, Musée d'Orsay. Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1990, vol.2, p.336-337
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