The Water Lilies - Morning

On 12 November 1918, the day after the Armistice, Monet wrote to his old friend Georges Clemenceau, then prime minister of France. He was about to finish two decorative panels, he said, and he wanted to sign them with the date of the victory and give them to the State. He called it a small thing, but the only way he had of taking part in the victory. Six days later Clemenceau went out to Giverny to choose them, and the gift began to grow. The deed signed in April 1922 promised 19 panels. In the end Monet gave 22, and none of them left Giverny until after his death. This composition runs along the south wall of the first oval room, almost 13 metres of pond in soft early light. Clumps of reeds and grasses close in at both ends, and a loose chain of lily pads floats across the lower half, a few pale flowers open among them. On the wall facing it hangs the composition called Clouds.