The Water Lilies - Green Reflections

In 1909, Monet described to the critic Roger Marx a room he had in mind, its walls ringed with paintings of water, meant to give the illusion of an endless whole, of a wave with no horizon and no shore. The idea had to wait almost 20 years for a building. In this composition he takes it as far as it goes. The framing leaves out the horizon and the banks altogether. What remains is the surface of the pond at Giverny, a deep green shot through with vertical streaks of blue where reflections sink into the water. Clusters of lily pads float across the top and the bottom, with flowers in pink, red and yellow. Two panels joined together, about eight and a half metres long, fill the eastern end of the first room, facing the Setting Sun along its length. Seen from above, the two oval rooms trace a figure eight lying on its side, the mathematical sign for infinity.