Monet’s Muse

29 — 30 August 2023 | 6:00 PM — 9:00 PM
Palais Kheireddine

— More than just a flower that grows in the water, water lilies play a crucial role in environmental preservation. Known as well as “Nymphaeaceae”, they represent a food source for different herbivorous species, namely beavers, beetles, jacanas, and many others. It also forms a barrier that shields fish from predatory birds. Additionally, it keeps the water cool and prevents algae from growing randomly by reducing direct sunlight reflection in the water all at once. More than this, Lily pads release oxygen in the water through their leaves, which leads to an oxygenated pond. All these facts, led to associating these plants mainly with resurrection, birth, purity, and enlightenment.

The French painter Claude Monet is known for his Water Liliies Series. For years, he painted variations of the interplay of light, water, and plants in his garden in Giverny.

Monet’s Garden in Giverny (fr)

In each of his Water Lilies pieces, Monet highlighted and focused on the surface of the water, as well as the reflection of the blue sky, making the expanse of both water and light the main characters of his paintings, and the Nymphaea the accompaniment. Like many other impressionists, namely Delacroix and Renoir, Monet used pure primitive colors while using a light background and focused on four main ingredients: light, color, motion, and texture. And to maintain continuous movement in his art pieces, Claude kept on varying and playing with the directions of his brush, while not forgetting the essential elements, water and light that is.

Another hidden fact about water lilies is the different color palette it can grow in. We usually tend to associate classic white bloom with these plants. However, they can manifest in different rainbow colors, from orange, pink, and purple, to bright blue and yellow. This explains perfectly Monet’s colors manipulation of colors when portraying them as it shows in the following paintings.