In the later years of his life Claude Monet largely devoted himself to painting the gardens he had built at his home in Giverny, in particular a series of over 200 paintings of Nymphaes, or water lilies, from the Japanese style pond that was the centerpiece of the smaller half of his gardens.
Three of these form a mural sized triptych that is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where for years they were in their own space, somewhat aside from the main bustle of the museum.
They have not been on view in their original relationship since 2001, and were not reinstalled during the museum’s extensive renovations in 2004.
The MoMA has now put them on view, to the delight of Monet lovers in NY, in an installation accompanied by smaller but related works, two loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and, from their own collection, The Japanese Footbridge, a stunning counterpoint to the serene waterlillies, ablaze with a maelstrom of fall colors that would have set Van Gogh on his ear.
The installation is on view until April 12, 2010.
Too bad. I was in New York for the first time of my life this summer and they were not shown :-(
I was lucky enough to see these paintings before MOMA remodeled. There was a Pollock exhibit at the same time. A wonderful juxtaposition and now strangely mingled in my mind.