Sunday, January 17, 2010

Monet's monument to peace, the Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris











This is a wonderful, smaller museum in Paris. Go, if you have a chance. It sits in the shadow of the Louvre, and is not heavily visited in the winter. Monet's work fills two oval shaped rooms. The project is dedicated to peace, and was painted just after WWI. The two rooms are filled with paintings of water lilies, and are configured in a shape that evokes the infinity symbol. There are four panels in each room, each panel is about 50 or so feet long. The lighting is filtered, and makes the rooms and paintings glow with a quiet and radiant beauty. After the paintings were finished, Impressionism went out of style. The museum was not much visited and fell into disrepair. It wasn't until 2006 that the museum was renovated, and fortunately the paintings are well preserved. It is a masterpiece and to me is Monet's crowning achievement.

2 comments:

Jeff said...

Looks wonderful. When we were in Paris the museum was closed, and so we've never seen this. Nice shots.

HagenInDenHaag said...

Definitely check it out next time, it is worth the trip to Paris just for this museum. Although it might be too crowded in the summer...