Water Lilies (Agapanthus), c.1915-1926, Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926). Oil on canvas; 201.3 x 425.8 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund and an anonymous gift 1960.81
The Painter's Eye: November 2015
Featuring Water Lilies (Agapanthus) by Claude Monet
In landscape painting, finding a motif can send an artist on a search far and wide, or as close as the back yard. I cannot think of many artists who actually created their own landscapes, as was the case with Claude Monet (1840-1926).
Monet’s paintings often feature the lush gardens around his home in Giverny, France. Anne Dumas, a curator at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, said in a 2015 article in The Guardian, “Not everybody knows quite what a serious and unbelievably knowledgeable gardener and horticulturalist Monet was. ... He himself thought he was a better gardener than painter.”
Water Lilies (Agapanthus Triptych) (1915-26) has come together for the first time in many years. The other two, equally large panels belong to the St. Louis Art Museum and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. At 6 ½ feet high and 56 feet long, it cannot help but be an immersive experience. Monet’s complete freedom of paint handling and mastery of color is supremely evident.
Paul Klee, Emil Nolde, Gustav Klimt and Wassily Kandinsky make perhaps a surprise appearance in the same exhibition, Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse – on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art through Jan. 5 – but all of them used the garden motif. Other artists included in this exhibition are Édouard Manet, John Singer Sargent, Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh and Mary Cassatt.
Organized by the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Cleveland Museum of Art, this exhibition is a rare opportunity to see truly exceptional paintings, and is not likely to happen again this close to central Ohio for a very long time.
Nationally renowned local artist Michael McEwan teaches painting and drawing classes at his Clintonville area studio.
