Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Stamped (lower right): Claude Monet
Gallery Label Most of the motifs for the two hundred canvases on which Monet worked after his 1908 trip to Venice were taken from the gardens on his property at Giverny. His views of the water-lily pond are perhaps the most famous, but he also extracted novel compositions from other corners of the grounds. Like the paintings he made of water lilies, his views of irises were meant to rise from the particular to the universal. In this work, the most highly finished of the series, the flowers are offered not as botanical specimens but as archetypes. Monet was already experiencing great difficulties with his eyesight, but any grower of irises will recognize that he knowingly found the reddish purple tint that hides within every blue iris.
Provenance the artist's son, Michel Monet, Sorel-Moussel (until the late 1950s; sold to Granoff); [Katia Granoff, Paris, late 1950s–1972; sold to Wildenstein]; [Wildenstein, Paris, 1972–74, sold on May 17 to Annenberg]; Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, Rancho Mirage, Calif. (1974–2001; jointly with MMA, 2001–his d. 2002; his bequest to MMA)
Exhibition History Paris. Galerie Katia Granoff. "Claude Monet: Les Nymphéas," June 1965, no catalogue.
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc.. "Masterpieces in Bloom," April 5–May 5, 1973, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism," April 19–July 9, 1978, no. 64.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism," August 1–October 8, 1978, no. 64.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," May 21–September 17, 1989, unnumbered cat.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," August 16–November 11, 1990, unnumbered cat.
Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," May 6–August 5, 1990, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection," June 4–October 13, 1991, unnumbered cat.
References Katia Granoff. Claude Monet: quinze nymphéas inédits . Paris, 1958, colorpl. XI.in Denis Rouart and Jean-Dominique Rey. Monet, Water-Lilies: Or the Mirror of Time . New York, 1974, unpaginated, ill. [French ed., 1972].Monet . Paris, 1981, p. 55, ill. and p. 46 (color detail).Monet . New York, 1983, p. 294, ill. p. 278 (color).Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné . 4, Lausanne, 1985, pp. 266–67, no. 1828, ill.in Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection . Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1991, pp. ix, 58–59, 167–68, ill. (color and bw) [1st edition, pp. xi, 56–57, 161–62, ill. (color and bw).Beaux arts no. 92 (July–August 1991), p. 69, ill. p. 72 (color, installation photograph).Monet, Narcissus, and Self-Reflection: The Modernist Myth of the Self . Chicago, 1994, p. 285.Monet: Catalogue raisonné–Werkverzeichnis . 4, 2nd ed. Cologne, 1996, pp. 866–67, no. 1828, ill. (color).Art News 97 (May 1998), p. 149.in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2000–2001." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 59 (Fall 2001), p. 57, ill. (color).in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York, 2007, pp. 147, 285–86, no. 136, ill. (color and bw).in Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff . Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 2007, p. 130.
Add to My Met Gallery
Print
Previous View
Enlarge
Zoom