The Crisis of Impressionism or Claude Monet’s New Realism?

Abstract

The question whether Monet’s Water Lilies are a separate phenomenon, a manifestation of “the crisis of Impressionism” or a simple and consistent continuation of his research has long been present in the history of modern art. In his book Postimpresjoniści [The Post- Impressionists] (1972), Wiesław Juszczak posed the problem in a radical manner and, by blurring the traditional opposition of naturalism and symbolism, offered one of the most interesting possible interpretations of Monet’s art. Juszczak perceived Monet’s experiment as a tentative search for an entirely new conception of form, not only in painting, as well as a search for the boundaries of the creative process. Referring to these considerations, the author of the current essay considers Water Lilies (conceived integrally as the paintings and the creation of the garden in Giverny) and proposes their perception as a construction of an “alternative world” (Emile Verhaeren). In the last years of his life, Monet enjoyed the sense of participating in nature’s “performance” that unfolded by itself at Giverny. The “Grand Decoration”, as he called the works in this series, was probably not intended to be the fi nal result of his many years’ work on the garden and on its painted image; it was rather a byproduct, so to speak, of this performance. The concept of a garden as a performance means the identifi cation or assimilation of nature and art. In the Giverny garden, Monet and nature exchanged their experiences. The dynamics of both processes of creation meant that the painter did not wholly control the creative process, but he encouraged it; Nature, in turn, participated in his display.