The Path to Abstraction

Perhaps Monet's most profound influence was on the development of abstract art. While he never abandoned representation entirely, his late Water Lilies pushed so far toward pure color and form that they provided a bridge to non-objective art. When the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired a large Water Lilies panel in 1955, Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko found in it a predecessor to their own investigations.

The all-over compositions of the late Monet, with no clear focal point or conventional perspective, anticipated the "overall paintings" of Abstract Expressionism. His method of working—responding intuitively to color and light rather than following preconceived plans—presaged the spontaneous methods of action painting. The environmental scale of the Orangerie Water Lilies created immersive color experiences that influenced Color Field painting and installation art.

Wassily Kandinsky, pioneer of abstract art, wrote of experiencing a Monet Haystack painting in Moscow in 1896: "I sensed for the first time that painting could exist without an object." This moment of recognition—that color and form could convey meaning independent of representation—marks a crucial point in art history's trajectory toward abstraction.