Water Lilies (left half) 1920

Curator: This is "Water Lilies," created around 1920 by Claude Monet. What springs to mind? Editor: Well, before anything analytical, it feels… like drowning, but in a beautiful way. It’s all these overlapping strokes—suffocating, yet shimmering. Curator: Indeed, the composition relies heavily on the layering of color and brushstroke, particularly horizontal lines that might evoke the surface tension of water. The later “Water Lilies” pieces see Monet pushing further into abstraction. What we are observing here could almost be an exercise in pure colour. Editor: Abstraction for sure. I’m trying to find something recognizable but it's all just… suggestion. I see weeping willows in the top, their spindly, pale green branches, then golden sunflowers or something blazing near the left, almost dissolving into that horizon. Is there even a horizon? Curator: The absence of a clear horizon line is notable. This challenges the traditional landscape, foregrounding surface over depth, and texture over form. Editor: I guess if I step back, it does read like a garden reflected in water. Those gorgeous murky browns in the lower middle section, that’s the pond, right? Like peering into something that has weight. I’m just pulled every which way. Curator: Note, too, the impasto technique, thick daubs of oil paint applied in an almost sculptural manner. This physicality reminds us that the work isn't a mere representation, but a tangible object. The materiality matters. Editor: It feels incredibly free, those brushstrokes, even frantic, which is remarkable given that he painted these in his eighties, mostly blind! Curator: His impaired vision undeniably influenced his approach. He heightened his focus on colour relationships and simplified form in some ways while also amplifying painterly texture. Editor: So, rather than diminishing the paintings, Monet’s failing sight… amplified the emotional punch. It makes them raw, unpolished. You feel what he was feeling. Curator: Perhaps "raw" is the wrong term. What about heightened rather than rough-hewn or unstructured? Every artistic choice resonates in ways we've discussed, moving us beyond merely descriptive assessment. Editor: Agreed, even beautiful can sound weak sometimes. So what words should we try when a master shows us how to swim through feeling? It’s like Monet reached for that… and grabbed starlight, then bottled it for us. Curator: An interesting metaphor for how even under limitations Monet used painting as a means for conveying experience.