Water Lilies (right half) 1920

Curator: Here we have "Water Lilies (right half)", a 1920 oil painting by Claude Monet. Editor: My first impression is... dreamlike. Like looking through water, appropriately enough. Curator: Monet painted these later in his life, and the increasing abstraction is significant. You can still recognize forms—the suggestions of the water lilies, of course, and the reflections—but they're almost dissolving into pure color and texture. It's about capturing the essence of the scene rather than its literal representation. Editor: It's interesting how he uses these broad, almost frantic strokes. The composition, especially the movement implied by these short marks, almost feels like looking at turbulent energy. It has a vibrational quality. Is that the Impressionist technique at work, or something more personal coming through, I wonder? Curator: I think it's both. He was, without a doubt, interested in recording his immediate perception of the visual world. Remember his famous series paintings—haystacks, the Rouen cathedral— where he would return to the same subject, over and over, to try and record the shifting effects of light. Here, he’s pushing that idea of immediacy, capturing not just light but feeling. He captures a moment and its memory simultaneously. The way the light falls, and how that feels within you. It becomes memory. Editor: So, even as his eyesight was failing, it seems he was developing a deeper vision. This tension, that sense of light dissolving the edges of things, might just reflect his failing vision, but in his mind the vibrant spirit still bursts free. I also note his expressionist bent towards the emotive capacities of light and color and a freedom from objective representational accuracy. It feels so modern. Curator: Absolutely. And by breaking down the subject into these shimmering fragments, he anticipated much of the abstract art that would follow. His paintings really do beckon you, to immerse yourself in this world of shimmering light and fleeting sensation. Editor: Yes, you have that invitation here to almost participate, a creative commons where our inner consciousness becomes part of what's displayed. Curator: I find myself leaving here with my soul restored to wonderment and joy. Editor: For me, it leaves a beautiful haunting, which stays with you as if you spent an afternoon next to that waterbank yourself.