Interpretive Resource

In the 1890s, Claude Monet dedicated himself to designing an ideal natural environment around his farmhouse at Giverny. In one part of the property, he created a water garden by diverting a tributary of the Epte River. The curvilinear pond, planted with water lilies and surrounded by weeping willows and other trees, reeds, and irises, is crossed at its narrowest point by a Japanese footbridge (built in 1893). Monet’s goal was to cultivate beautiful motifs for his art, and indeed his garden would be his primary subject for the last twenty-five years of his life.

Monet began to paint what he referred to as "water landscapes" in 1899. Many of the works from this initial series, including the Art Institute’s canvas, represent the footbridge, the design of which derived from a Japanese print in the artist’s collection. In this view, water lilies cover most of the pond’s surface, so that only small areas capture reflections of the surrounding trees. The scene is detailed and even claustrophobic, as if Monet felt compelled to examine every aspect of his newly created environment: the feathery texture of dangling willow branches, the dull sheen of lily pads, the fluffy, white-and-pink petals of blossoms, the murkiness of the water. The bridge, echoing the horizon line, helped him to organize all these observations into a nearly square, symmetrical composition that is both a decorative pattern of colors and a representation of nature. The strokes of thick paint on the surface of the canvas seem as moist, variegated, and intricately entwined as the plants themselves. The viewer, like the artist, is enclosed in a lush, sultry world that engages all the senses.