1908／Oil on canvas
101.0 x 90.0 cm
400 Years of Western Paintings – Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum –
Exhibition period：Saturday April 12～Sunday June 8, 2025
Nagoya City Art Museum (Aichi, Japan)
SUMMARY
In the 1890s, Monet enthusiastically created some series of the paintings including Haystacks, Poplars, Rouen Cathedral and Morning on the Seine. It was in 1897 that Monet began to paint the water lilies in the pond of the Japanese garden at his home in Giverny. He created eight paintings in the first series of Water Lilies, and in 1902 started to work in earnest on the execution of the Water Lilies series. Monet eventually created more than 300 paintings that depicted his garden and pond in Giverny, until 1926 when he died of pneumosclerosis in his bedroom from which he could have overlooked the flower garden. Especially, most of these paintings were painted from when Monet was past the age of 70, until he was aged 86. This painting is one of the 15 works in the Water Lilies series that Monet painted in 1908 at the age of 68, and together with 47 works from his other series, it was exhibited in a solo exhibition titled “Water Lilies. Water Landscape” at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris in May of the following year (1909). In this painting, Monet minimized the difference of light and shade as much as possible, presenting delicate, exquisite colors and decorations like a rococo style, the method with which Monet had experimented occasionally from around 1906. Among an enormous number of the paintings in the series Water Lilies, this painting exhibits the lightest style. Monet remarked about one of the reasons he was so fascinated by water lilies: his image of the water garden “evokes in you the idea of the infinite; you experience there, as in microcosm… the instability of the universe which transforms itself at every moment before our eyes.” As often indicated, the method of extracting a portion of the water surface and painting the close-up view of the portion can be considered a suggestive method of “using a part to represent the whole” as seen in the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. It is no doubt that Monet learned a “perspective” and “representation” from ukiyo-e prints. This can be guessed from a collection of more than 200 ukiyo-e prints Monet had acquired which are hung on the walls of his house which is now the Claude Monet Museum. Such a new development of his style into which Monet introduced an oriental aesthesis was variously criticized, but Monet refuted: “Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.” Another work created in the same year with almost the same composition and same color tones as this work is housed in the National Museum of Wales.
ARTIST
Claude Monet
1840-1926
List of artworks by the same artist
INFORMATION
Saturday, April 12 - Sunday, June 8, 2025
400 Years of Western Paintings – Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum – Nagoya City Art Museum (Aichi, Japan)
Friday, July 26 - Monday, September 23, 2024
400 Years of Western Paintings – Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum – Shizuoka City Museum of Art (Shizuoka, Japan)
Friday, July 28 - Sunday, August 27, 2023
Masterpieces of Modern Eastern and Western Painting Exhibition Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art (Ishikawa, Japan)
Saturday, September 17 - Sunday, November 20, 2022
400 Years of Western Paintings – Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum – Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design (Toyama, Japan)
Saturday, July 16 - Sunday, September 4, 2022
Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art (Kumamoto, Japan)
Saturday, March 19 - Sunday, May 8, 2022
Masterpieces of European Paintings From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection Saga Prefectural Art Museum (Saga, Japan)
Saturday, October 23 - Sunday, December 26, 2021
The 400 Years of Western Painting: Masterpieces From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts (Tochigi, Japan)
Friday, October 15 - Sunday, January 16, 2022
Claude Monet, Nymphéas : Paysage d’eau Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
Friday, July 9 - Sunday, August 29, 2021
400 Years of European Paintings: Masterpieces From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art (Okayama, Japan)
Tuesday, December 15 - Sunday, January 31, 2021
How to Read Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum (Okinawa, Japan)
Saturday, September 12 - Tuesday, November 3, 2020
400 Years of Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum (Miyazaki, Japan)
Wednesday, July 22 - Sunday, September 6, 2020
400 Years of Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Oita Prefectural Art Museum (Oita, Japan)
Thursday, February 20 - Sunday, April 12, 2020
How to Read Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki (Ibaraki, Japan)
Saturday, November 2 - Sunday, December 22, 2019
“Rendez-vous” through Arts―East Meets West― Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Izumi (Osaka, Japan)
Tuesday, September 3 - Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Masterpieces of European Paintings From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum (Yamaguchi, Japan)
Saturday, January 12 - Saturday, May 4, 2019
500 Years of Western Paintings: Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Shanghai PowerLong Museum (Shanghai, China)
Tuesday, October 23 - Sunday, December 23, 2018
500 Years of Western Paintings: Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Tsinghua University Art Museum (Beijing, China)
Saturday, July 9 - Sunday, August 28, 2016
300 years of Western Painting from Baroque, Rococo to École de Paris Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum (Nagano, Japan)
Thursday, October 8 - Sunday, February 21, 2016
Japan’s Love for Impressionism – from Monet to Renoir The Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bonn, Germany)
Friday, July 18 - Sunday, August 31, 2014
Modern Western Paintlings and the Old Matsukata Collection Kagoshima City Museum of Art (Kagoshima, Japan)
Tuesday, March 11 - Sunday, May 11, 2014
Impressionists at the Waterside—Depicting Urban Resorts: Paris, the Seine, and Normandy The Museum of Kyoto (Kyoto, Japan)
Wednesday, January 15 - Sunday, March 2, 2014
Impressionists at the Waterside—Depicting Urban Resorts: Paris, the Seine, and Normandy Fukuoka City Museum (Fukuoka, Japan)
Friday, May 10 - Sunday, September 8, 2013
Monet’s Garden National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia)
Saturday, July 9 - Monday, October 10, 2011
Painting Light Aomori Museum of Art (Aomori, Japan)
Tuesday, December 7 - Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monet and the Artists of Giverny The Beginning of American Impressionism The Bunkamura Museum of Art (Tokyo, Japan)
Saturday, October 9 - Sunday, November 28, 2010
Monet and the Artists of Giverny The Beginning of American Impressionism Kitakyusyu Municipal Museum of Art (Fukuoka, Japan)
Tuesday, February 23 - Sunday, May 30, 2010
Monet and Abstraction Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, Spain)
Saturday, April 4 - Sunday, May 24, 2009
The Intersection of Paintings and Photographs Sapporo Art Museum (Hokkaido, Japan)
Friday, January 30 - Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Intersection of Paintings and Photographs Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art (Hokkaido, Japan)
Saturday, July 14 - Sunday, November 25, 2007
Impressionists and Its Sources: Monet, Renoir, and Barbizon Masters Musee d'art Mercian KARUIZAWA (Nagano, Japan)
Saturday, April 7 - Monday, July 2, 2007
Claude Monet:L’art de Monet et sa postérité The National Art Center, Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
Friday, April 18 - Sunday, May 25, 2003
The Great Masters of Art Fukuoka Art Museum (Fukuoka, Japan)
Saturday, October 5 - Monday, November 4, 2002
Art of the West & Art of Japan Exhibition: Monet, Renoir, Cezanne… Ikeno Taiga, Tani Buncho, and Others Shimane Art Museum (Shimane, Japan)
Saturday, September 7 - Sunday, September 29, 2002
Four Centuries of Occidental Paintings from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection SOGO Museum of Art (Kanagawa, Japan)
Saturday, July 20 - Sunday, September 1, 2002
The Great Masters of Art Hida Takayama Museum of Art (Gifu, Japan)
Friday, June 29 - Sunday, September 16, 2001
Monet & Japan Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
Friday, March 9 - Monday, June 11, 2001
Monet & Japan National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
Sunday, October 1 - Sunday, December 3, 2000
Masterpieces of Western Paintings from the Renaissance to the 20th Century National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (Taipei, Taiwan)
Monday, January 18 - Sunday, April 11, 1999
Monet in the 20th Century Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK)
Wednesday, September 23 - Sunday, January 3, 1999
Monet in the 20th Century Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Boston, USA)
Tuesday, October 14 - Sunday, November 30, 1997
Masterpieces of Western Oil Painting from the TFAM Collection Hong Kong Museum of Art (Hong Kong, China)
Thursday, July 31 - Tuesday, August 12, 1997
Claude Monet Daimaru Museum (Tokyo, Japan)
Saturday, July 22 - Sunday, November 26, 1995
Claude Monet: 1840-1926 The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, USA)
Saturday, April 16 - Sunday, June 12, 1994
Monet retrospective exhibition Nagoya City Art Museum (Aichi, Japan)
Friday, February 11 - Thursday, April 7, 1994
Monet retrospective exhibition Bridgestone Museum of Art (Tokyo, Japan)
Friday, October 16 - Thursday, November 5, 1992
Masterpieces of European Oil Painting: The Paintings in 20th Century from the Renaissance to Impressionism China Art Gallery (Beijing, China)
Saturday, November 3 - Sunday, December 2, 1990
Masterpieces of European Oil Painting Ho-Am Art Museum (Yongin-gun, Kyunggi-do, South Korea)
Saturday, September 22 - Sunday, October 21, 1990
Masterpieces of European Oil Painting Ho-Am Gallery (Seoul, South Korea)
Provenance: acheté à Monet par Durand-Ruel et Bernheim-Jeune en mars 1913 et vendu à Bernheim –Jene en 1920 Mrs.Potter Palme , Chicago Honoré Palmer, Chicago Légué á l’Art Institute de Chicago en 1949 Mr and Mrs Edmund W. Mudge Jr. Dallas, c.1949 vente Edmund W. Mudge, New York, Parke Bernet,28 octobre 1970, n゜.23 (Forbes) vente, Londres , Christie, 2 juillet 1974 ,n゜65 (Yamamoto) P.A, Japon, 1981 Exhibited : Paris, Durand-Ruel, Monet, Nymphéas, 1909, no.41 Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Paysages impressionistes, 1920, no.21 ou 22 Tokyo, Galerie des Arts, Monet, Renoir, Bonnard, 1979, no.16 Tokyo, Seibu Museum of Art, Monet, 1981, n.20
Literature: Letters n.1885, 1887, 1888, 2058 et 2059 L. Venturi, Archives…, 1939, t.I, pp.421-422, 437 D. Rouart, J.D. Rey et R. Maillard, 1972, p.165 (ill.). D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisoné, Lausanne-Paris, 1979, vol.IV, p.230, n.1731 (illustrated)
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