The Water Lilies - Clear Morning with Willows

Reflections of a pale, milky sky give the water in this panel its brightness. Two big willow trunks cut through it like columns, their fronds hanging down from the top edge, and the ripples are laid in with wavy strokes of blue. The composition, three panels almost 13 metres long, runs along the south wall of the second room, facing Morning with Willows on the north. Monet planned these rooms to be lit by daylight through the ceiling, light that brightens and dims with the weather outside. For about 40 years they went without it. Between 1960 and 1965 the building was remodelled to show the collection of the art dealer Paul Guillaume and his widow. The architect in charge, Olivier Lahalle, closed off the light well above the Water Lilies. A long renovation removed his upper floor and brought the daylight back. The rooms reopened on 17 May 2006, 79 years to the day after their first inauguration.