The Late Years: Garden as Cosmos

In Monet's final decade, despite failing eyesight and physical infirmity, the garden reached its fullest expression. The plantings had matured, creating the dense, almost jungle-like atmosphere visible in late photographs. The water garden, in particular, had evolved into a complete ecosystem, with the planted banks reflecting in water covered with lilies, creating a world without horizon or conventional orientation.

The late paintings of the garden push toward a cosmic vision. The Japanese bridge series of 1918-24, painted when cataracts severely affected Monet's vision, explode with color—reds, yellows, and oranges that seem to burn with internal fire. These are not descriptions of a garden but expressions of a lifetime's accumulated sensation, memory, and emotion fused into paint.

The Water Lilies panels created for the Orangerie transform the garden pond into an environment that surrounds viewers, eliminating conventional perspective and creating a floating world of color and light. These works, installed in oval rooms according to Monet's specifications, create a meditation space where viewers can experience something of what Monet felt in his garden—a dissolution of boundaries between self and nature.