An exhibition at MoMA in New York, from 13 September 2009 to 12 April 2010 featured all four late paintings by Claude Monet in MoMA's collection, plus two on loan from the Metropolitan Museum.
Monet devoted the last 25 years of his life to painting the pond and gardens he'd created at Giverny. In the 1910s he started a series of huge paintings of waterlilies and reflections, granting some to the Orangerie Museum in Paris but many others remained in his studio after his death, under the care of the artist's son. Art collectors and historians were more interested in Monet's earlier, Impressionist work, and his paintings from the 1910s and 1920s were considered too unstructured and unfinished.
These days, these paintings are as celebrated as his earlier ones. Not least because the large scale and gestural freedom of Abstract Expressionism showed the late Monet as a predecessor of great relevance.
Monet devoted the last 25 years of his life to painting the pond and gardens he'd created at Giverny. In the 1910s he started a series of huge paintings of waterlilies and reflections, granting some to the Orangerie Museum in Paris but many others remained in his studio after his death, under the care of the artist's son. Art collectors and historians were more interested in Monet's earlier, Impressionist work, and his paintings from the 1910s and 1920s were considered too unstructured and unfinished.
These days, these paintings are as celebrated as his earlier ones. Not least because the large scale and gestural freedom of Abstract Expressionism showed the late Monet as a predecessor of great relevance.
Images 1-4 of 4
 "Water Lilies" by Monet |  "The Japanese Footbridge" by Monet |  "Agapanthus" by Monet |  "Water Lilies" by Monet |
- Graphic Index
- Text Index
