Vendredi 21 Août , ici à 2015
Close up of a group of water lilies
Our visit to Claude Monet's Garden at Giverny inspired us to see his water lily Nympheas collection at the Musee de l'Orangerie, located adjacent to Place de la Concorde and appropriately nestled between the. Seine River and the Tuileries gardens. Monet approved of this location for his 'plein air' works, perhaps because it replicates the position of his water lily gardens at Giverny - nestled between his cottage garden and the small stream which feeds the ponds.
There are only 8 paintings in the collection, but they are huge - measuring perhaps 3m by
9m and painted in a series of panels, which line the curved walls of the elliptical gallery
space lit by natural light designed by Monet himself. The paintings capture the water lily
ponds in different lights at different times of the day and in different seasons - some light
and colourful as in summer and spring, some in yellows and oranges as in autumn, some subdued as in winter. You can sit in the gallery, surrounded by Monet's immense works which occupied the last 20 years of his life.
It is worth going downstairs, as we did, to see the 44 min video about the life and work of Monet plus the 144 masterpieces from the Walter-Guillaume collection - superb paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Derain, Soutine etc - an absolute visual feast!
Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 1892 painting 'Two girls'
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