WestRiver Images
Irises and Water-Lilies
While the surrounding vegetation did not appear as often in the water-lily paintings, Monet devoted a few canvases to the wisterias that had invaded the Japanese bridge and to the irises on the edges of the water-lily pond that displayed their long petals and their velvety sheen. In 1952, the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard gave the following description of the painter’s works in the arts quarterly Verve: ‘If he dared, a philosopher musing over one of Monet’s water paintings would develop dialectics of the iris and the water lily, the dialectic of the upright leaf and the leaf that rests calmly, quietly and heavily on the water. This is surely the very dialectic of the aquatic plant: one wants to rise up, fired by some unknown revolt against the vital element, and the other is faithful to its element.’
Irises and Water-Lilies
While the surrounding vegetation did not appear as often in the water-lily paintings, Monet devoted a few canvases to the wisterias that had invaded the Japanese bridge and to the irises on the edges of the water-lily pond that displayed their long petals and their velvety sheen. In 1952, the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard gave the following description of the painter’s works in the arts quarterly Verve: ‘If he dared, a philosopher musing over one of Monet’s water paintings would develop dialectics of the iris and the water lily, the dialectic of the upright leaf and the leaf that rests calmly, quietly and heavily on the water. This is surely the very dialectic of the aquatic plant: one wants to rise up, fired by some unknown revolt against the vital element, and the other is faithful to its element.’