Enchanting Madness. Claude Monet and Water Lilies

By 1914, the noisy battles that marked the emergence of the rebellious group of Impressionist painters had long become history, and the young rebels who had provoked them — those of them who had not yet left this world —... had turned into gray-bearded patriarchs of French painting. Claude Monet, who was 73 years old, settled in Giverny, where he created his personal paradise garden with artificial ponds and hybrid lilies. French newspapers informed readers that the celebrated master had retired. And yet the newspapers were quick to write Monet off. Despite personal and global cataclysms, despite ill health, uncertainty in his abilities, and his advanced age, the artist began to realize the largest artistic project of his entire career — a grand cycle of landscapes featuring water lilies.