WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.500 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. When we think 00:00:02.500 --> 00:00:05.019 of, well, the founding father of the entire Impressionist 00:00:05.019 --> 00:00:07.620 movement, Claude Monet just springs to mind, 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:09.960 doesn't he? He really does. You picture those 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:12.939 dreamy scenes, maybe the hazy light on the Thames 00:00:12.939 --> 00:00:15.900 or almost inevitably the water lilies at Giverny, 00:00:16.039 --> 00:00:19.679 that kind of tranquil beauty. Iconic images. 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:23.579 But today we're aiming to go beyond those, you 00:00:23.579 --> 00:00:26.199 know, almost serene pictures hanging on museum 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:29.420 walls. We want to dig into the demanding, often 00:00:29.420 --> 00:00:32.020 quite tumultuous reality of the man who actually 00:00:32.020 --> 00:00:34.479 created them. Yeah, we're looking at Oscar Claude 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:38.840 Monet, born 1840, died 1926. And he wasn't just 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:41.520 a painter. He was, in many ways, a revolutionary. 00:00:42.350 --> 00:00:45.270 His discipline, his sheer stubborn vision, really 00:00:45.270 --> 00:00:47.310 forced the art world to change its perspective. 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:49.590 Literally. That's the plan, then. Exactly. Our 00:00:49.590 --> 00:00:51.689 mission here is to move past that surface -level 00:00:51.689 --> 00:00:53.929 appreciation, you know, pretty pictures, and 00:00:53.929 --> 00:00:55.590 really understand the technical struggle, the 00:00:55.590 --> 00:00:58.329 financial chaos sometimes, and the personal tragedies 00:00:58.329 --> 00:01:00.710 that fueled this nearly century -long quest he 00:01:00.710 --> 00:01:03.270 was on. To capture those fleeting moments of 00:01:03.270 --> 00:01:05.290 light. That really is the core of it, isn't it? 00:01:05.329 --> 00:01:07.450 Monet was probably the most consistent, the most 00:01:07.450 --> 00:01:10.430 prolific practitioner of Impressionism's main 00:01:10.430 --> 00:01:14.079 idea. expressing your perception of nature mainly 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:17.239 through plain air painting. Painting outdoors. 00:01:17.700 --> 00:01:20.480 He was just relentlessly dedicated to that immediacy. 00:01:20.579 --> 00:01:22.459 Yeah. Capturing the moment. And here's where 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:25.579 the story gets, well, instantly ironic. The movement's 00:01:25.579 --> 00:01:28.239 name, Impressionism, which is globally recognized 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:30.780 now. It wasn't a compliment originally. Not at 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:33.939 all. It came from his 1872 painting, Impression, 00:01:33.959 --> 00:01:36.859 Sunrise Impression, Sol Levant. He showed it 00:01:36.859 --> 00:01:40.140 in 1874 at the very first Impressionist exhibition. 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:43.840 Right. And this critic, Louis Leroy, he saw the 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:45.900 title and just seized on it. He used Impressionism 00:01:45.900 --> 00:01:48.060 basically as an insult, suggesting the painting 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:51.870 was sloppy, unfinished even. But Monet and his 00:01:51.870 --> 00:01:54.290 group. They basically took this derogatory label 00:01:54.290 --> 00:01:56.390 and kind of wore it like a badge of honor. It 00:01:56.390 --> 00:01:58.769 fit their rebellious stance. It really captures 00:01:58.769 --> 00:02:00.890 that spirit right from the get -go. And that 00:02:00.890 --> 00:02:02.709 rebelliousness, you can see it was kind of baked 00:02:02.709 --> 00:02:05.129 into him from a young age. He was born in Paris, 00:02:05.170 --> 00:02:07.269 but grew up in Le Havre. And his father was a 00:02:07.269 --> 00:02:09.490 pretty successful merchant. Wholesale goods, 00:02:09.810 --> 00:02:13.289 ship channeling, groceries. And he fully expected 00:02:13.289 --> 00:02:16.169 Claude to take over the family business. That 00:02:16.169 --> 00:02:18.810 was the plan. Stability. The bourgeois path. 00:02:19.069 --> 00:02:22.629 Exactly. But Monet, he had other plans. He was 00:02:22.629 --> 00:02:25.569 apparently a deeply apathetic student, hated 00:02:25.569 --> 00:02:28.750 schoolwork, really. But he did have this undeniable 00:02:28.750 --> 00:02:31.789 early talent for drawing. And thankfully, his 00:02:31.789 --> 00:02:33.870 mother, who was a singer, she actually supported 00:02:33.870 --> 00:02:36.569 his artistic ambitions. Which created this fundamental 00:02:36.569 --> 00:02:38.639 tension right there in the family. the expected 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:42.219 stability of business versus the perceived chaos 00:02:42.219 --> 00:02:44.419 and freedom of being an artist. So let's unpack 00:02:44.419 --> 00:02:46.479 those formative years. And because Monet didn't 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:48.860 initially set out to be a serious landscape artist, 00:02:48.979 --> 00:02:51.439 did he? No, not at all. Our sources show he was 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:53.139 actually doing quite well in his early teens, 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:56.520 like around 15, just making quick, witty caricatures, 00:02:56.620 --> 00:02:59.539 portraits of local people. For money. So he had 00:02:59.539 --> 00:03:01.139 a little business going. Yeah, he had a local 00:03:01.139 --> 00:03:03.860 reputation for these sketches. But the real turning 00:03:03.860 --> 00:03:05.840 point, the moment the, let's say, the future 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:08.439 great landscape artist was born, that came around 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:11.919 1858. He met Eugene Boudin. Ugh, Boudin. Key 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:14.840 figure. Absolutely key. Boudin introduced Monet 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:19.099 to this revolutionary idea at the time. Plan 00:03:19.099 --> 00:03:22.439 air painting. Painting outdoors. Directly from 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:24.680 the subject. It sounds normal now. But back then. 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:27.360 It was radical. And it completely changed Monet's 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:30.340 life, didn't it? Totally. Monet later said, quite 00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:32.340 emphatically apparently, that he owed everything 00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:35.080 to Boudin, called him his master. And this wasn't 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:37.000 just about, you know, setting up an easel outside. 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:39.840 It was about absorbing the philosophy. Which 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:43.080 was? That the fleeting, changing effects of weather 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:45.960 and light, that was a real subject. Not just 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:48.020 the tree or the building, but the light on the 00:03:48.020 --> 00:03:50.900 tree. Right. And that new passion drove him to 00:03:50.900 --> 00:03:54.439 Paris in 1859. He tried the usual routes first, 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:56.939 though. Visited the official salon, tried to 00:03:56.939 --> 00:03:59.280 get into Thomas Couture's famous studio. Yeah, 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:02.120 but Couture actually refused him. So he ended 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:04.039 up enrolling in the Académie Suisse instead. 00:04:04.419 --> 00:04:06.400 That's where he met Camille Pissarro, another 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:08.580 future Impressionist giant. But the Académie 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:10.879 Suisse wasn't quite right either. Apparently 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.740 not serious enough for him. So later, he studied 00:04:13.740 --> 00:04:16.139 at Charles Glair's studio. And this is where 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:18.220 he connects with three other huge names of the 00:04:18.220 --> 00:04:21.920 movement. Pierre -Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, 00:04:22.350 --> 00:04:24.689 and Frederick Bazille. Bazille became his closest 00:04:24.689 --> 00:04:27.430 friend. Okay, so he's finding his circle, but 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:30.399 Glair's studio didn't last long either. No, and 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:33.000 this is crucial for understanding his early defiance. 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:35.819 Monet left Gleyre's studio pretty quickly because 00:04:35.819 --> 00:04:38.319 he just fundamentally disagreed with the way 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:41.079 they taught. Gleyre pushed for historical subjects, 00:04:41.259 --> 00:04:43.879 highly finished, perfected studio work, very 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:46.500 classical. And Monet was already hooked on Bourdain's 00:04:46.500 --> 00:04:48.540 spontaneity. Exactly. He was already searching 00:04:48.540 --> 00:04:51.220 for a way to express something new, immediate, 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:54.379 rooted in modern life, not ancient history. So 00:04:54.379 --> 00:04:56.240 he's barely started figuring this out, and then 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:00.379 boom, 1861, age 20. He gets conscripted. Seven 00:05:00.379 --> 00:05:02.600 years in the army. Right. And his father offered 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:04.600 to buy him out, which was, you know, a thing 00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:07.519 wealthy families could do. But there was a condition. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:10.519 Let me guess. Give up art. Give up art entirely. 00:05:10.860 --> 00:05:13.240 Join the family business. Monet refused. Flat 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:16.680 out. He enlisted instead. Wow. That's commitment. 00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:19.879 Where did he end up serving? Algeria. Which turned 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:22.939 out to be, well, difficult. He got typhoid fever, 00:05:22.980 --> 00:05:25.000 had to come back after only about a year. But 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:27.519 his time in North Africa. short as it was, had 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:30.040 this really powerful effect on him. How so? The 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:32.600 light, the colors. He talked about the intensity, 00:05:32.779 --> 00:05:36.160 the vivid, saturated colors there. He later said 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:38.500 that North Africa contained the gem of my future 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:41.100 researches. It was a revelation. You can almost 00:05:41.100 --> 00:05:43.500 see that thread leading to his later work, right? 00:05:43.540 --> 00:05:45.660 The Mediterranean paintings, the Venice series, 00:05:45.779 --> 00:05:48.800 that intensity of light he found there. Definitely. 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:50.899 It showed him possibilities beyond the grayer 00:05:50.899 --> 00:05:54.449 light of northern. France. Anyway, his wealthy 00:05:54.449 --> 00:05:56.389 aunt eventually paid for his release from the 00:05:56.389 --> 00:05:58.850 army, and once he was out, he just threw himself 00:05:58.850 --> 00:06:00.889 back into painting. Trying ambitious things early 00:06:00.889 --> 00:06:03.730 on, like women in the garden and that huge Le 00:06:03.730 --> 00:06:06.670 Déjeuner sur l 'herbe. Yes, Le Déjeuner, the 00:06:06.670 --> 00:06:08.709 luncheon on the grass, which he actually never 00:06:08.709 --> 00:06:11.470 finished, interestingly. But it's seen as maybe 00:06:11.470 --> 00:06:13.949 the most important painting of his early period. 00:06:14.410 --> 00:06:16.790 It shows him grappling with these big problems, 00:06:16.930 --> 00:06:19.149 like how to paint figures convincingly in natural 00:06:19.149 --> 00:06:22.000 outdoor light in a modern setting. And he did 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:24.240 get some early recognition at the official salon. 00:06:24.459 --> 00:06:26.959 He did, yeah. He debuted successfully in 1865. 00:06:27.220 --> 00:06:30.259 They accepted his work again in 66 and 68. But 00:06:30.259 --> 00:06:34.220 after that, rejection. Consistently. So why the 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:37.689 sudden shift? From acceptance to being seen as 00:06:37.689 --> 00:06:40.029 this radical outcast. Because his work was just 00:06:40.029 --> 00:06:42.110 moving too fast, too far away from what the salon 00:06:42.110 --> 00:06:44.889 wanted. It was seen as too radical, too sketchy. 00:06:44.910 --> 00:06:47.829 You know, the salon valued smooth finishes, historical 00:06:47.829 --> 00:06:50.790 themes, detail. M1A was all about pure visibility, 00:06:51.209 --> 00:06:53.889 quick brushstrokes, atmosphere. Exactly. It was 00:06:53.889 --> 00:06:56.850 just discouraged at all official levels, as one 00:06:56.850 --> 00:06:59.750 source puts it. So by 1880, after one last failed 00:06:59.750 --> 00:07:01.410 attempt, he gave up on the salon completely. 00:07:01.629 --> 00:07:03.990 That rejection basically solidified his path 00:07:03.990 --> 00:07:06.230 outside the establishment. And that rejection, 00:07:06.350 --> 00:07:08.970 it coincided with some really intense personal 00:07:08.970 --> 00:07:11.550 hardship. Which kind of brings us to the birth 00:07:11.550 --> 00:07:14.350 of Impressionism as an organized movement. Around 00:07:14.350 --> 00:07:17.990 1867, his father completely cut off his allowance. 00:07:18.329 --> 00:07:20.689 Yeah, that was after Monet started his relationship 00:07:20.689 --> 00:07:23.970 with his model, Camille Doncier. And she soon 00:07:23.970 --> 00:07:25.990 became pregnant with her first son, Jean. So 00:07:25.990 --> 00:07:29.110 no money from dad. How did they survive? It was 00:07:29.110 --> 00:07:32.470 rough. Really rough. Even though he clearly loved 00:07:32.470 --> 00:07:35.910 Camille and John, he painted so many tender portraits 00:07:35.910 --> 00:07:38.509 of them. Poverty was just a constant companion. 00:07:38.870 --> 00:07:41.350 They relied entirely on handouts, loans from 00:07:41.350 --> 00:07:44.230 friends, help from patrons like Louis Joaquin 00:07:44.230 --> 00:07:46.670 Gaudibert. The sources paint a pretty grim picture 00:07:46.670 --> 00:07:48.730 sometimes, don't they? Oh, yeah. Stories of not 00:07:48.730 --> 00:07:51.069 being able to pay a hotel bill in 1870, having 00:07:51.069 --> 00:07:53.850 to pawn things, constantly moving, facing eviction, 00:07:53.970 --> 00:07:56.009 utter desperation at times. They finally got 00:07:56.009 --> 00:07:58.750 married in June 1870, but that was just as the 00:07:58.750 --> 00:08:00.779 Franco... Depression War was breaking out. Terrible 00:08:00.779 --> 00:08:02.879 timing. And to avoid being conscripted again, 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:05.660 they immediately fled to London, self -imposed 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:08.379 exile. Which sounds awful, another upheaval. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:13.079 But that London exile, 1870 to 71, it actually 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:14.980 turned out to be massively important for his 00:08:14.980 --> 00:08:17.879 career, didn't it? Hugely important. Critically, 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:20.620 this is where he met the art dealer Paul Duran 00:08:20.620 --> 00:08:23.579 Rule. Ah, the legendary Duran Rule. Very same. 00:08:24.009 --> 00:08:26.430 He became the champion, the main dealer for the 00:08:26.430 --> 00:08:29.370 Impressionists. He bought their work when basically 00:08:29.370 --> 00:08:31.410 everyone else, especially the critics, was just 00:08:31.410 --> 00:08:33.830 tearing it apart. That relationship provided 00:08:33.830 --> 00:08:36.769 a vital, if sometimes unsteady, financial lifeline 00:08:36.769 --> 00:08:38.850 for Monet and the others. And London offered 00:08:38.850 --> 00:08:41.289 artistic inspiration too, right? He saw works 00:08:41.289 --> 00:08:43.509 by British masters like Turner and Constable. 00:08:43.730 --> 00:08:46.590 Yes, he deeply admired them. From J .M .W. Turner, 00:08:46.850 --> 00:08:48.809 it was that incredible way he treated light, 00:08:48.950 --> 00:08:51.610 how it could almost dissolve forms, especially 00:08:51.610 --> 00:08:54.259 those paintings of fog on the town. Right. Turner 00:08:54.259 --> 00:08:56.460 showed him how atmosphere itself, what Monet 00:08:56.460 --> 00:08:58.379 later called the envelope, could be the main 00:08:58.379 --> 00:09:00.899 subject. Exactly. And from John Constable, it 00:09:00.899 --> 00:09:03.279 was that commitment to the immediacy, the spontaneity 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:05.879 of landscape painting. Monet absorbed those lessons 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:08.159 from the Brits and then, well, made them entirely 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:10.580 his own. But it wasn't all smooth sailing in 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:12.899 London either. I found this fascinating detail 00:09:12.899 --> 00:09:15.139 in our surface. Apparently the police were watching 00:09:15.139 --> 00:09:17.940 him. Watching him? Really? Really. Why? Get this. 00:09:18.460 --> 00:09:20.659 Seven different police reports were written about 00:09:20.659 --> 00:09:24.700 Monet between June and October 1871. They suspected 00:09:24.700 --> 00:09:27.700 him of revolutionary activities. No way. Just 00:09:27.700 --> 00:09:29.799 for painting landscapes. It seems like it might 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:32.480 have been wartime paranoia, you know? A foreign 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:34.840 artist acting unconventionally, painting outdoors. 00:09:35.259 --> 00:09:37.799 Whatever the reason, it meant more trouble. And 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:39.740 his work was also refused entry to the Royal 00:09:39.740 --> 00:09:42.889 Academy exhibition there. So... rejected in Paris, 00:09:43.090 --> 00:09:45.889 rejected in London. He really couldn't get a 00:09:45.889 --> 00:09:48.190 break from the establishment. It seems not. Well, 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:50.950 that kind of institutional rejection really cemented 00:09:50.950 --> 00:09:53.070 the need for them to create their own venue, 00:09:53.129 --> 00:09:57.929 their own revolution. So by 1874, Monet, Renoir, 00:09:58.049 --> 00:10:01.190 Pissarro, Cezanne, Degas, Berthe Morisot, others, 00:10:01.370 --> 00:10:03.929 they formed the Anonymous Society of Painters, 00:10:04.090 --> 00:10:06.830 Sculptors, and Engravers. Monet was a driving 00:10:06.830 --> 00:10:09.360 force in organizing that, wasn't he? Absolutely. 00:10:09.419 --> 00:10:11.659 A leading figure. And they specifically chose 00:10:11.659 --> 00:10:14.299 the name anonymous to signal they weren't defining 00:10:14.299 --> 00:10:16.899 themselves by one style, but just setting themselves 00:10:16.899 --> 00:10:19.480 up against the judgmental salon system. And yet 00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:21.480 history ended up defining them with a single 00:10:21.480 --> 00:10:24.000 style anyway, thanks to that impression, Sunrise 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.559 painting, and Leroy's sarcastic review. Exactly. 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:29.000 While the conservative critics latched onto the 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:31.940 unfinished look, the more progressive critics 00:10:31.940 --> 00:10:35.000 immediately saw something important. they praised 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:37.179 the group for capturing modern life the fleeting 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:39.980 moments the true appearance of things and Monet 00:10:39.980 --> 00:10:42.850 quickly got a reputation within that group as 00:10:42.850 --> 00:10:45.289 the foremost landscape painter, right? Really 00:10:45.289 --> 00:10:47.590 dedicated to documenting the purely visible. 00:10:47.769 --> 00:10:50.470 Yes, absolutely. And this dedication to the visible, 00:10:50.570 --> 00:10:53.350 to capturing transient effects, led him to tackle 00:10:53.350 --> 00:10:56.149 some really challenging modern subjects, like 00:10:56.149 --> 00:10:59.090 the Garcent -Lazar series from 1877. A train 00:10:59.090 --> 00:11:01.970 station. Why paint a busy, noisy train station? 00:11:02.250 --> 00:11:04.610 Because it was the absolute peak of modernity 00:11:04.610 --> 00:11:07.970 back then. All that noise, chaos, movement. And 00:11:07.970 --> 00:11:10.210 most importantly for Monet, it offered the perfect 00:11:10.210 --> 00:11:12.110 subject for capturing... capturing fleeting effects, 00:11:12.409 --> 00:11:16.389 steam and smoke from the trains. Ah, the ultimate 00:11:16.389 --> 00:11:19.970 ephemeral medium. Precisely. He made about a 00:11:19.970 --> 00:11:22.450 dozen paintings of the station, chose seven for 00:11:22.450 --> 00:11:24.889 the exhibition, and apparently coordinated them 00:11:24.889 --> 00:11:27.090 very carefully. He wanted to show the station 00:11:27.090 --> 00:11:28.970 at different times, capturing the arrival and 00:11:28.970 --> 00:11:31.389 departure of trains, showing how the steam and 00:11:31.389 --> 00:11:33.649 the natural light interacted, changing the color 00:11:33.649 --> 00:11:37.070 and form constantly. So that desire to paint 00:11:37.070 --> 00:11:39.789 the same place multiple times, tracking the changes, 00:11:40.029 --> 00:11:43.129 that was the seed of his famous series method 00:11:43.129 --> 00:11:46.029 later on. Absolutely. The absolute precursor. 00:11:46.029 --> 00:11:47.789 He was already thinking about how to paint time 00:11:47.789 --> 00:11:51.269 itself. But his experiments, like focusing intensely 00:11:51.269 --> 00:11:53.490 on that train station, were happening against 00:11:53.490 --> 00:11:55.690 a backdrop of personal tragedy, unfortunately. 00:11:56.389 --> 00:11:59.409 Things took a turn in the mid -1870s. His wife, 00:11:59.570 --> 00:12:02.309 Camille. Yeah, by 1876, Camille was seriously 00:12:02.309 --> 00:12:04.860 ill. She did give birth to their second son, 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:07.659 Michelle, in 1878, but her health just collapsed 00:12:07.659 --> 00:12:09.980 after that. She was diagnosed with uterine cancer. 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:12.980 And she died in 1879. He was devastated, wasn't 00:12:12.980 --> 00:12:16.000 he? Profoundly. But the study he painted of her 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.600 on her deathbed, it's one of the most complex, 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:20.639 psychologically revealing things he ever did. 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:23.919 It shows this intense duality in him. Duality? 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:27.620 How so? The grieving husband, absolutely. But 00:12:27.620 --> 00:12:30.419 also the objective, almost detached observer. 00:12:31.050 --> 00:12:33.850 He confessed years later to his friend Georges 00:12:33.850 --> 00:12:35.850 Clemenceau, who later became prime minister of 00:12:35.850 --> 00:12:38.450 France. Right. He confessed that as he was looking 00:12:38.450 --> 00:12:41.149 at Camille's dead face, his first instinct, his 00:12:41.149 --> 00:12:43.870 automatic reflex, was to analyze the colors. 00:12:44.409 --> 00:12:46.929 He said he was just systematically noting the 00:12:46.929 --> 00:12:49.169 colors according to an automatic reflex. Wow, 00:12:49.370 --> 00:12:51.730 that's a staggering thing to admit. Even in that 00:12:51.730 --> 00:12:54.529 moment of intense grief, the artist's eye, the 00:12:54.529 --> 00:12:57.690 need to analyze light and color, just took over. 00:12:57.850 --> 00:13:00.620 It seems so. It shows how deeply ingrained that 00:13:00.620 --> 00:13:03.059 way of seeing was for him. It couldn't be switched 00:13:03.059 --> 00:13:05.360 off, even then. The critic John Berger wrote 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:07.860 about that painting, calling it a terrible blizzard 00:13:07.860 --> 00:13:09.899 of loss which will forever efface her features. 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:12.720 A blizzard of loss. That captures it. It really 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:15.460 hints at the kind of intense, singular focus 00:13:15.460 --> 00:13:17.759 he brought to his art, maybe at the expense of 00:13:17.759 --> 00:13:19.720 everything else sometimes. It certainly suggests 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:21.779 that. And after Camille's death, things were 00:13:21.779 --> 00:13:24.379 incredibly difficult again. His main patron at 00:13:24.379 --> 00:13:27.289 the time, Ernest Toshide, went bankrupt. Monet 00:13:27.289 --> 00:13:29.590 was essentially destitute once more. So what 00:13:29.590 --> 00:13:32.029 did he do? He ended up moving to a town called 00:13:32.029 --> 00:13:34.529 Vethoy, and he shared a house there with the 00:13:34.529 --> 00:13:37.350 now bankrupt Hoshide family, Ernest, his wife 00:13:37.350 --> 00:13:39.830 Alice, and their children. Alice was already 00:13:39.830 --> 00:13:42.190 basically running the combined household. A very 00:13:42.190 --> 00:13:45.350 complicated arrangement. Extremely. And it evolved 00:13:45.350 --> 00:13:48.230 dramatically over time. After Ernest Hoshide 00:13:48.230 --> 00:13:50.830 died some years later, Monet and Alice Hoshide 00:13:50.830 --> 00:13:53.470 began a relationship. They eventually moved the 00:13:53.470 --> 00:13:56.330 entire blended family. Monet's two sons and Alice's 00:13:56.330 --> 00:13:59.610 six children, first to Poissy in 1881 and then, 00:13:59.649 --> 00:14:02.549 crucially, to Giverny in 1883. And they eventually 00:14:02.549 --> 00:14:05.590 married. Yes, in 1892, after Ernest had passed 00:14:05.590 --> 00:14:08.750 away. And interestingly, Alice's third daughter, 00:14:08.889 --> 00:14:11.490 Suzanne, became a favorite model for Monet in 00:14:11.490 --> 00:14:13.879 some of his later figure paintings. So with this 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:16.519 new, large, blended family and eventually settling 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:19.519 in Giverny, he finally found some domestic stability 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:22.440 after all the chaos. He did. And that stability 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:24.519 seemed to trigger a fundamental shift in his 00:14:24.519 --> 00:14:26.519 working habits. He started really preferring 00:14:26.519 --> 00:14:29.620 to work alone, actively seeking solitude, getting 00:14:29.620 --> 00:14:31.600 away from crowded tourist spots where he'd painted 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:34.179 earlier. His letters from that time often mention 00:14:34.179 --> 00:14:37.059 needing isolation, right? Demanding absolute 00:14:37.059 --> 00:14:39.700 focus. Yes, his letters to Alice are full of 00:14:39.700 --> 00:14:42.539 it. He needed to concentrate entirely on the 00:14:42.539 --> 00:14:46.139 work. And this push for solitude coincided perfectly 00:14:46.139 --> 00:14:48.620 with the end of his long financial struggles. 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:51.500 Ah, so things finally started looking up financially. 00:14:51.820 --> 00:14:54.799 Definitely. His real prosperity began after a 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:58.340 series of successful painting trips. And critically... 00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:00.379 When his work started selling really well in 00:15:00.379 --> 00:15:02.600 the American market, that made a huge difference. 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:04.940 Any particular trips that stand out from that 00:15:04.940 --> 00:15:07.059 period? The trip to Bordighera on the Italian 00:15:07.059 --> 00:15:10.200 Riviera in 1884 is a key one. He spent almost 00:15:10.200 --> 00:15:12.399 three months there, produced around 38 paintings. 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:15.320 He was just captivated by the light. He called 00:15:15.320 --> 00:15:18.559 it magic, described the region as a fairy tale 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:21.440 country. But the light there also presented a 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:23.360 new kind of challenge for him, didn't it? Something 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:26.600 about the vegetation. Yes, exactly. The sheer 00:15:26.600 --> 00:15:30.220 abundance of growth. the luxuriant exotic plants. 00:15:30.779 --> 00:15:33.159 It was difficult for his impressionist technique. 00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:35.899 He wrote to Alice about it, saying things like, 00:15:35.940 --> 00:15:38.879 these palm trees are exasperating and also the 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:41.399 motifs are extremely difficult to render. Everything 00:15:41.399 --> 00:15:45.019 is so lush. So the specific forms, the complexity, 00:15:45.220 --> 00:15:48.840 it kind of resisted the broad, quick brush strokes 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:51.259 he was used to. Precisely. It was a real battle 00:15:51.259 --> 00:15:53.860 between his established method and this incredibly 00:15:53.860 --> 00:15:56.360 rich, detailed subject matter. He had to adapt. 00:15:56.940 --> 00:15:58.620 And even though there was still some initial 00:15:58.620 --> 00:16:00.559 financial bumps, Durand Rule actually had his 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:03.039 own financial crisis around then and had to pawn 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:05.279 some of those Bordigiera paintings. Right. Temporary 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:07.700 setback. But overall, by the end of the 1880s, 00:16:07.740 --> 00:16:09.799 Monet's financial worries were basically over, 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:12.179 largely thanks to those American sales and growing 00:16:12.179 --> 00:16:14.580 critical acclaim. And that financial security 00:16:14.580 --> 00:16:18.100 finally allowed him to create his own perfect, 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:21.620 controlled painting environment. Which leads 00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:25.399 us straight to Giverny. Right. In 1890, Monet 00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:27.539 finally had enough money to buy the house and 00:16:27.539 --> 00:16:29.240 the property at Giverny that he'd been renting 00:16:29.240 --> 00:16:33.539 since 1883. And this place, it became his sanctuary, 00:16:33.799 --> 00:16:37.779 his primary, almost sole muse for the last 40 00:16:37.779 --> 00:16:40.000 years of his life. It provided the stability 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:42.820 he needed for his most intense artistic experiments, 00:16:42.980 --> 00:16:45.080 didn't it? Absolutely. And Giverny wasn't just 00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:47.720 a house with a nice garden. It was, in itself, 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:51.320 a curated living work of art. designed by Monet 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:53.679 specifically to be painted. He really became 00:16:53.679 --> 00:16:55.799 the architect of his own landscape. I read he 00:16:55.799 --> 00:16:57.759 employed up to seven gardeners at one point. 00:16:57.820 --> 00:17:00.100 That's right. He meticulously planned every layout, 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:02.559 every planting. He treated the garden like an 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:04.660 extension of his studio, a controlled environment 00:17:04.660 --> 00:17:06.859 where he could manipulate color and light through 00:17:06.859 --> 00:17:09.140 the plantings themselves. And he was particularly 00:17:09.140 --> 00:17:11.400 obsessed with the water garden. Oh, completely. 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:13.880 He expanded the existing pond, even diverted 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:16.180 a local stream to feed it. And most famously, 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:18.599 he imported water lilies, not just any water 00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:23.089 lilies. Yes. He cultivated the white ones native 00:17:23.089 --> 00:17:25.910 to France, but also brought in cultivars from 00:17:25.910 --> 00:17:29.109 South America and Egypt. This gave him this incredible 00:17:29.109 --> 00:17:31.990 range of colors, yellows, blues, whites that 00:17:31.990 --> 00:17:34.869 would age into pinks. It was all about creating 00:17:34.869 --> 00:17:37.869 the perfect palette in the pond itself. That 00:17:37.869 --> 00:17:40.150 level of control is amazing, and it directly 00:17:40.150 --> 00:17:43.700 leads into his most famous innovation. The series 00:17:43.700 --> 00:17:45.599 method. You mentioned the Gare Saint -Lazare 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:48.519 paintings hinted at it. Exactly. The series method 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:50.839 really grew out of his dissatisfaction with the 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:53.299 limitations of standard impressionism. You know, 00:17:53.319 --> 00:17:55.779 the idea that one painting could capture one 00:17:55.779 --> 00:17:57.619 moment perfectly. He felt that wasn't enough. 00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:00.039 Because the light changes so fast. Precisely. 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.279 The series was his answer to capturing not just 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:05.559 the single moment, but the passage of time itself. 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:08.859 the dynamism of light. He realized he needed 00:18:08.859 --> 00:18:11.140 multiple canvases showing the exact same scene, 00:18:11.259 --> 00:18:13.259 but under different light conditions, different 00:18:13.259 --> 00:18:15.039 weather, different seasons. What did the public 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:17.119 think when they first saw these? Imagine going 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:20.039 to an exhibition and seeing, say, 20 paintings 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:22.440 of haystacks or 20 paintings of the same cathedral 00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:25.759 facade. Bewilderment, definitely for some, but 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:28.519 also excitement. Take the ruined cathedral series, 00:18:28.779 --> 00:18:32.839 painted between 1892 and 94. He did 26 views 00:18:32.839 --> 00:18:35.779 in total. And his focus wasn't the building's 00:18:35.779 --> 00:18:38.660 architecture or its religious meaning. It was 00:18:38.660 --> 00:18:40.700 the light on the building. Purely the light. 00:18:40.779 --> 00:18:43.019 How it interacted with the stone surface at different 00:18:43.019 --> 00:18:46.220 times of day and different weather. When he exhibited 00:18:46.220 --> 00:18:49.539 20 of these together in 1895, it was a radical 00:18:49.539 --> 00:18:52.359 statement. The message was clear. The real subject 00:18:52.359 --> 00:18:55.119 isn't the solid object. It's the ephemeral veil 00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:57.740 of atmosphere surrounding it. Light and air. 00:18:58.140 --> 00:19:00.720 And the sheer logistical effort involved. It's 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:02.380 mind -boggling. The sources say he'd work on 00:19:02.380 --> 00:19:04.920 multiple canvases at once. Yes, constantly switching 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:07.299 between them as the light changed. He might have 00:19:07.299 --> 00:19:09.240 as many as eight canvases on the go simultaneously. 00:19:09.900 --> 00:19:12.339 He'd work on one for maybe an hour. Then as the 00:19:12.339 --> 00:19:14.079 sun moved, he'd have to switch to the next one 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:16.180 that matched the new light condition. So eight 00:19:16.180 --> 00:19:18.660 easels set up, probably eight different palettes 00:19:18.660 --> 00:19:20.759 mixed. It required incredible discipline and 00:19:20.759 --> 00:19:24.029 timing. Almost scientific precision. The series 00:19:24.029 --> 00:19:26.869 wasn't just about making pretty variations. It 00:19:26.869 --> 00:19:29.190 was a form of documentation, a study of optics 00:19:29.190 --> 00:19:31.750 and time. And he applied this method internationally, 00:19:31.970 --> 00:19:33.869 too. He went back to London several times. Staying 00:19:33.869 --> 00:19:36.269 at the Savoy Hotel, right, for those famous London 00:19:36.269 --> 00:19:39.329 paintings. Exactly. And he had that very specific 00:19:39.329 --> 00:19:41.849 view about London. He said he loved it only in 00:19:41.849 --> 00:19:44.829 winter. Why? Because of the fog. He famously 00:19:44.829 --> 00:19:47.839 said, without the fog... London wouldn't be a 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:50.319 beautiful city. It's the fog that gives it its 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:52.960 magnificent breadth. Such a perfect Monet quote. 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:55.259 It goes right back to that idea of the envelope, 00:19:55.400 --> 00:19:58.059 the atmosphere being the key thing. So he produced 00:19:58.059 --> 00:20:01.299 that amazing London fog series between 1899 and 00:20:01.299 --> 00:20:04.359 1904. Dozens of paintings. Yeah. 41 of Waterloo 00:20:04.359 --> 00:20:07.539 Bridge, 34 of Charing Cross Bridge, 19 of the 00:20:07.539 --> 00:20:10.119 Houses of Parliament, often painted from a room 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:12.480 at St. Thomas's Hospital, which gave him this 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:14.940 fantastic vantage point across the Thames. And 00:20:14.940 --> 00:20:17.259 here's a crucial point. Those London paintings 00:20:17.259 --> 00:20:19.579 weren't entirely finished outdoors, were they? 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:22.180 No, that's right. Our sources are clear they 00:20:22.180 --> 00:20:24.880 were significantly retouched back in his studio 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:27.720 at Giverty, sometimes years later, right up until 00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:30.480 1904. So that shows an evolution in his method, 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:32.619 doesn't it? Yeah. He's using the initial outdoor 00:20:32.619 --> 00:20:35.819 impression, the plein air sketch, but then he's 00:20:35.819 --> 00:20:37.920 refining it, almost building upon it from memory 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:40.430 and theory back in the studio. He's painting 00:20:40.430 --> 00:20:43.410 the idea of the fog, the refined envelope. Exactly. 00:20:43.410 --> 00:20:45.930 It's a move towards a more conceptual approach, 00:20:46.210 --> 00:20:49.109 still rooted in observation, but increasingly 00:20:49.109 --> 00:20:51.849 reliant on his internal understanding of light 00:20:51.849 --> 00:20:54.769 and atmosphere. And that series method, that 00:20:54.769 --> 00:20:57.309 focus on atmosphere, it really paved the way 00:20:57.309 --> 00:20:59.509 for the subject that would completely dominate 00:20:59.509 --> 00:21:02.369 the last two decades of his life. The water lilies. 00:21:02.470 --> 00:21:05.509 He started them around 1899. Yes. And they just 00:21:05.509 --> 00:21:08.940 took over. It became his most ambitious. sequence, 00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:11.359 as he called it. He ended up painting over 250 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.839 canvases of the Waterlily Pond. An incredible 00:21:14.839 --> 00:21:17.519 number. And when he first exhibited a large group 00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:21.559 of them, around 42 canvases in 1909. The critics 00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:23.180 immediately saw something new was happening. 00:21:23.299 --> 00:21:25.440 They noted he'd reached the ultimate degree of 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:28.059 abstraction. The focus had shifted completely. 00:21:28.259 --> 00:21:30.200 It wasn't about the pond in a landscape anymore. 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:32.279 It was about the surface of the water itself. 00:21:33.259 --> 00:21:36.299 Reflections, lilies, light. Exactly. And a key 00:21:36.299 --> 00:21:38.619 part of that shift was eliminating the horizon 00:21:38.619 --> 00:21:40.839 line, getting rid of the banks of the pond in 00:21:40.839 --> 00:21:43.579 the painting. By the mid -1910s, he developed 00:21:43.579 --> 00:21:46.359 this incredibly fluid, almost immersive style. 00:21:46.700 --> 00:21:48.980 He started using different canvas shapes, too, 00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:52.000 more square formats, even circular ones, and 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:55.059 working on huge mural -sized panels. Why was 00:21:55.059 --> 00:21:57.779 getting rid of the pond's edge, the perimeter, 00:21:57.880 --> 00:22:00.440 such a big conceptual jump? Because the edge, 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:03.990 the bank, the horizon line, That's what anchors 00:22:03.990 --> 00:22:06.950 a painting in verifiable, measurable reality. 00:22:07.210 --> 00:22:09.549 When you remove it, the painting becomes this 00:22:09.549 --> 00:22:12.609 field of color and light and texture. The pond 00:22:12.609 --> 00:22:15.210 stops being just a subject in a landscape. It 00:22:15.210 --> 00:22:17.470 becomes the starting point for an almost abstract 00:22:17.470 --> 00:22:19.509 art, as people described it. He was painting 00:22:19.509 --> 00:22:21.910 light almost divorced from the thing it was illuminating. 00:22:21.950 --> 00:22:24.009 Pretty much just the reflections, the surface, 00:22:24.089 --> 00:22:26.640 the interplay of light and water. But this period 00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:29.200 of incredible artistic freedom, this push towards 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:31.839 abstraction, it coincided with some profound 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:34.759 personal losses and physical decline for Monet. 00:22:34.940 --> 00:22:39.759 Sadly, yes. His second wife, Alice, died in 1911. 00:22:40.299 --> 00:22:43.980 Then his eldest son, Jean, died in 1914. And 00:22:43.980 --> 00:22:47.059 right around 1913, Monet began developing cataracts 00:22:47.059 --> 00:22:49.160 in both eyes. Which must be just about the worst 00:22:49.160 --> 00:22:51.099 thing that can happen to a painter so obsessed 00:22:51.099 --> 00:22:53.019 with light and color. Absolutely devastating. 00:22:53.480 --> 00:22:56.079 And the impact on his vision, and therefore his 00:22:56.079 --> 00:22:59.359 painting, was immediate and quite dramatic. You 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:01.079 could see it in the canvases from that period. 00:23:01.319 --> 00:23:03.720 How did it change? His brush strokes became much 00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:06.519 broader, less defined. Sharp lines started to 00:23:06.519 --> 00:23:09.609 disappear. And crucially, his perception of color 00:23:09.609 --> 00:23:12.289 shifted dramatically. He started seeing the world 00:23:12.289 --> 00:23:14.410 and painting it with this overwhelming reddish 00:23:14.410 --> 00:23:16.250 or yellowish tinge. Why does that happen with 00:23:16.250 --> 00:23:18.500 cataracts? Because the lens of the eye clouds 00:23:18.500 --> 00:23:21.000 over in yellows, it starts to filter out the 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:23.019 blues and greens. So the artist, without realizing 00:23:23.019 --> 00:23:25.759 it, compensates by adding more reds and yellows 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:28.619 to make the colors look right to their eye, even 00:23:28.619 --> 00:23:30.599 though it's distorted. So his paintings became 00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:33.339 much warmer, sometimes almost garishly so. Yes. 00:23:33.380 --> 00:23:35.599 The palettes became very heavy on reds, oranges, 00:23:35.660 --> 00:23:38.160 yellows. It's a known effect of cataracts on 00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:40.650 artists' vision. It sounds like a complete nightmare 00:23:40.650 --> 00:23:43.329 for someone like Monet. How did he even continue 00:23:43.329 --> 00:23:45.390 working when he couldn't trust his own eyes? 00:23:45.789 --> 00:23:48.730 Incredible discipline, basically. And reliance 00:23:48.730 --> 00:23:51.750 on memory and intellect. He knew intellectually 00:23:51.750 --> 00:23:54.490 what color something should be. He had to start 00:23:54.490 --> 00:23:57.869 labeling his paint tubes meticulously. He arranged 00:23:57.869 --> 00:24:00.170 his palette in a strict, consistent order so 00:24:00.170 --> 00:24:02.289 he knew where each color was by touch and position. 00:24:02.569 --> 00:24:05.880 Wow. But he admitted himself that he became insensitive 00:24:05.880 --> 00:24:08.579 to the finer shades of tonalities seen close 00:24:08.579 --> 00:24:12.660 up. He was, in a way, painting the idea of color, 00:24:12.779 --> 00:24:15.579 his memory of color, rather than the optical 00:24:15.579 --> 00:24:17.960 reality in front of him. Did people try to get 00:24:17.960 --> 00:24:19.859 him to have surgery? His friend Clemenceau was 00:24:19.859 --> 00:24:21.759 pushing him, wasn't he? Yes, Clemenceau strongly 00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:24.700 encouraged him for years. But Monet was terrified. 00:24:25.339 --> 00:24:28.099 extremely reluctant. He feared a botched operation 00:24:28.099 --> 00:24:30.799 would leave him blind or change his vision in 00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:32.700 ways he couldn't control. He actually said he'd 00:24:32.700 --> 00:24:34.980 rather give up painting entirely than risk losing 00:24:34.980 --> 00:24:37.380 a little of these things that I love. But he 00:24:37.380 --> 00:24:39.599 eventually did have the surgery. He finally gave 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:42.859 in and had cataract surgery on one eye in 1923. 00:24:43.740 --> 00:24:46.599 But the recovery was really difficult. He struggled 00:24:46.599 --> 00:24:49.440 for a long time with cyanopsia. Cyanopsia? What's 00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:51.500 that? It's seeing everything with a blue tint. 00:24:52.089 --> 00:24:54.430 So after years of seeing Yellard, suddenly his 00:24:54.430 --> 00:24:56.930 world was overwhelmingly blue. Imagine going 00:24:56.930 --> 00:24:59.390 from one extreme distortion to another. It was 00:24:59.390 --> 00:25:01.630 incredibly disorienting. That must have been 00:25:01.630 --> 00:25:04.049 just horrifying. I read he actually started destroying 00:25:04.049 --> 00:25:06.430 canvases from the period just before his surgery. 00:25:06.710 --> 00:25:09.109 He did. Looking back at them with this slowly 00:25:09.109 --> 00:25:11.769 clearing vision, he felt they were terribly distorted 00:25:11.769 --> 00:25:14.549 by that red -yellow cataract cast. He couldn't 00:25:14.549 --> 00:25:17.150 stand them. The turning point... Thankfully, 00:25:17.170 --> 00:25:19.210 it came when he was fitted with special tinted 00:25:19.210 --> 00:25:21.930 glasses, Zeiss lenses. Then they helped? They 00:25:21.930 --> 00:25:24.349 corrected the cyanopsia. He apparently exclaimed 00:25:24.349 --> 00:25:26.569 that he was finally able to see the real colors 00:25:26.569 --> 00:25:29.890 again. By 1925, his vision had improved significantly, 00:25:30.190 --> 00:25:32.309 and this allowed him to go back to some of those 00:25:32.309 --> 00:25:34.789 canvases he hadn't destroyed. And this is fascinating. 00:25:34.829 --> 00:25:37.230 He started retouching them, didn't he? Changing 00:25:37.230 --> 00:25:41.150 the colors. Yes. This is a superb detail. He 00:25:41.150 --> 00:25:43.839 went back to those preoperative... water lily 00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:46.200 paintings, the ones that looked too yellow -red 00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:48.380 to his newly corrected vision, and he started 00:25:48.380 --> 00:25:50.839 making them bluer. He was actively correcting 00:25:50.839 --> 00:25:53.500 the distortions caused by the disease, using 00:25:53.500 --> 00:25:56.240 his restored vision to impose what he now saw 00:25:56.240 --> 00:25:59.740 as the true blue tones. That's incredible, adjusting 00:25:59.740 --> 00:26:02.099 his past work based on his present sight. It 00:26:02.099 --> 00:26:04.660 really shows his relentless drive for perceptual 00:26:04.660 --> 00:26:07.440 accuracy, even correcting his own past self. 00:26:07.909 --> 00:26:10.410 And amidst all this intense personal struggle 00:26:10.410 --> 00:26:12.809 with his vision, he was still deeply engaged 00:26:12.809 --> 00:26:15.369 with the world around him. During World War I, 00:26:15.390 --> 00:26:17.230 for instance. His son Michel was serving in the 00:26:17.230 --> 00:26:19.609 war, right? Yes. And during that time, Monet 00:26:19.609 --> 00:26:22.029 painted this powerful series of Weeping Willows. 00:26:22.130 --> 00:26:24.930 They were intended as a patriotic homage, a memorial 00:26:24.930 --> 00:26:27.650 to the French soldiers who had fallen. It highlights 00:26:27.650 --> 00:26:30.069 that even his very aesthetic choices, his subjects, 00:26:30.230 --> 00:26:32.670 were often deeply bound up in his sense of national 00:26:32.670 --> 00:26:35.140 identity and the events of his time. So when 00:26:35.140 --> 00:26:38.299 we look at those final huge water lilies, the 00:26:38.299 --> 00:26:40.640 ones painted while his site was failing, and 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:42.460 then the ones he retouched after the surgery, 00:26:42.700 --> 00:26:45.339 they really serve a vital role in art history, 00:26:45.460 --> 00:26:47.480 don't they? They're seen as this crucial link. 00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:50.460 Absolutely. A bridge, really. He's often called 00:26:50.460 --> 00:26:52.720 an intermediary between 19th century tradition, 00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:56.180 Impressionism, and the rise of 20th century abstract 00:26:56.180 --> 00:26:59.460 art. What creates that link? Is it just the abstraction? 00:26:59.940 --> 00:27:01.980 It's partly the abstraction, yes, the reduction 00:27:01.980 --> 00:27:04.019 of the subject to almost pure color and texture, 00:27:04.119 --> 00:27:06.460 but it's also the sheer scale of those late works. 00:27:07.099 --> 00:27:09.640 For many years, ironically, these late paintings 00:27:09.640 --> 00:27:11.980 were kind of ignored by critics, even after they 00:27:11.980 --> 00:27:14.680 were installed in the Musée de l 'Orangerie in 00:27:14.680 --> 00:27:18.039 Paris in 1927, shortly after his death. But they 00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:21.220 had a major comeback, a rediscovery, in the 1950s. 00:27:21.240 --> 00:27:24.140 They did, yes, specifically by the abstract expressionist 00:27:24.140 --> 00:27:26.359 painters in America, artists like Ellsworth. 00:27:26.509 --> 00:27:29.150 Kelly, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock. They looked 00:27:29.150 --> 00:27:31.490 at Monet's huge immersive water lily panels. 00:27:31.730 --> 00:27:33.950 The ones that surround you in the orgery. Exactly. 00:27:34.130 --> 00:27:36.730 And they recognized an anticipation of their 00:27:36.730 --> 00:27:39.289 own concerns. The abandonment of traditional 00:27:39.289 --> 00:27:41.609 perspective and depth, the focus on the canvas 00:27:41.609 --> 00:27:44.529 as a field of action or sensation, the large 00:27:44.529 --> 00:27:47.630 scale meant to envelop the viewer. Monet perhaps 00:27:47.630 --> 00:27:50.410 unintentionally provided a vital historical precedent 00:27:50.410 --> 00:27:53.240 for modern abstraction. And his public legacy 00:27:53.240 --> 00:27:56.000 today is obviously huge, and so much of it is 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:59.200 tied to Giverny itself. Definitely. His home, 00:27:59.240 --> 00:28:01.680 his studio, and crucially, the water lily pond 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:04.319 he created, they were eventually bequeathed by 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:06.279 his son Michel to the French Academy of Fine 00:28:06.279 --> 00:28:09.299 Arts. After extensive, meticulous restoration, 00:28:09.740 --> 00:28:12.079 the whole property opened to the public in 1980. 00:28:12.569 --> 00:28:14.309 And you can visit today and see the gardens, 00:28:14.430 --> 00:28:17.410 the house, and also his personal collection of 00:28:17.410 --> 00:28:19.609 Japanese woodcut prints, right, which were a 00:28:19.609 --> 00:28:21.750 big influence on him. Yes, a huge influence. 00:28:21.890 --> 00:28:23.730 You can see it in his compositions, the flattened 00:28:23.730 --> 00:28:25.890 perspective, the decorative quality sometimes. 00:28:26.190 --> 00:28:28.609 That collection is still there at Quirini. And, 00:28:28.670 --> 00:28:30.369 of course, the institutional pinnacle of his 00:28:30.369 --> 00:28:33.950 late work remains those huge curved water lily 00:28:33.950 --> 00:28:36.309 panels permanently installed in the Musée de 00:28:36.309 --> 00:28:38.869 l 'Orangerie that took years of negotiation with 00:28:38.869 --> 00:28:40.750 the French government to make happen. The sheer 00:28:40.750 --> 00:28:43.869 value of his work on the market today just underscores 00:28:43.869 --> 00:28:47.009 that cultural importance. His popularity exploded 00:28:47.009 --> 00:28:49.589 in the second half of the 20th century. Oh, absolutely. 00:28:49.769 --> 00:28:52.630 His paintings command astronomical prices. For 00:28:52.630 --> 00:28:54.750 instance, Le Pot de Chemin de Fer aux Jantes 00:28:54.750 --> 00:28:59.410 sold for over $41 million back in 2008. And later 00:28:59.410 --> 00:29:01.690 that same year, one of the Water Lilies paintings 00:29:01.690 --> 00:29:04.680 went for over... $80 million. Just incredible 00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:07.940 sums. But that immense value also casts a light 00:29:07.940 --> 00:29:10.460 on a much darker history associated with his 00:29:10.460 --> 00:29:12.380 work, doesn't it? The issue of Nazi looting. 00:29:12.420 --> 00:29:15.339 Yes, that's a crucial and often painful part 00:29:15.339 --> 00:29:18.180 of the legacy. Monet's works were highly desirable, 00:29:18.460 --> 00:29:21.400 and many were stolen or forcibly sold by Jewish 00:29:21.400 --> 00:29:24.200 collectors and dealers during the Nazi era. The 00:29:24.200 --> 00:29:26.720 list of victims is harrowing. You mentioned René 00:29:26.720 --> 00:29:29.200 Gimpel, the Jewish art dealer who owned haystacks 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:30.920 at Giverny and was killed in a concentration 00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:33.720 camp. And Paul Rosenberg, another major dealer, 00:29:33.900 --> 00:29:36.680 had a nymphious water lily stolen from him. And 00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:38.799 these stories continue to surface even relatively 00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:41.559 recently. Remember the discovery of Cornelius 00:29:41.559 --> 00:29:44.019 Gerlitz's hidden trove of art in Munich a few 00:29:44.019 --> 00:29:46.460 years back? Yes, I was astonished. Well, among 00:29:46.460 --> 00:29:48.779 the works found in Gurlitt's suitcase was a Monet 00:29:48.779 --> 00:29:50.920 that had belonged to a Jewish retail magnate 00:29:50.920 --> 00:29:54.019 confiscated by the Nazis. It just underscores 00:29:54.019 --> 00:29:56.019 how these beautiful objects can be tied up in 00:29:56.019 --> 00:29:58.640 this incredibly intense, high stakes history 00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:01.569 of persecution and theft. Thankfully, there are 00:30:01.569 --> 00:30:04.170 ongoing efforts to return these works. Our sources 00:30:04.170 --> 00:30:07.309 mention one case, Borde de Mer, which was bought 00:30:07.309 --> 00:30:10.150 by the Parlogi family in 1936, just before they 00:30:10.150 --> 00:30:12.190 had to flee Austria. It was finally restored 00:30:12.190 --> 00:30:14.369 to their granddaughters just this year, 2024. 00:30:14.869 --> 00:30:17.630 That's good to hear. Restitution is incredibly 00:30:17.630 --> 00:30:20.309 important. It ensures we remember and appreciate 00:30:20.309 --> 00:30:23.309 the full context, the sometimes very fraught 00:30:23.309 --> 00:30:26.769 human stories behind these masterpieces. So if 00:30:26.769 --> 00:30:30.140 we try to sum up Monet's immense career. You 00:30:30.140 --> 00:30:32.259 really see this masterclass in artistic evolution, 00:30:32.500 --> 00:30:34.720 don't you? He starts as the rebellious, plain 00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:36.900 -air pioneer, battling the salon establishment. 00:30:37.380 --> 00:30:39.940 Then he invents the definitive art series, pushing 00:30:39.940 --> 00:30:42.640 impressionism to its logical conclusion, maybe 00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:45.500 beyond. And finally, he becomes this, well, almost 00:30:45.500 --> 00:30:47.700 accidental abstractionist in his later years, 00:30:47.779 --> 00:30:50.319 driven partly by his own vision, but also profoundly 00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:52.559 shaped by the limitations of his failing sight. 00:30:52.920 --> 00:30:55.299 He truly went far beyond the initial goals of 00:30:55.299 --> 00:30:57.960 impressionism. We started by saying impressionism 00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:00.259 was about recording perception, capturing the 00:31:00.259 --> 00:31:02.940 fleeting moment. But in those final monumental 00:31:02.940 --> 00:31:05.740 water lilies, he seems to be after something 00:31:05.740 --> 00:31:08.740 else entirely. I think so, too. Yeah. It feels 00:31:08.740 --> 00:31:10.720 like he's trying to transcend just pure visibility, 00:31:11.259 --> 00:31:14.359 trying to paint only light and atmosphere, turning 00:31:14.359 --> 00:31:17.099 the objective physical world of the pond into 00:31:17.099 --> 00:31:20.579 this purely subjective. dazzling internal vision. 00:31:20.660 --> 00:31:22.799 Which leaves us with a really powerful final 00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:25.980 thought for you, the listener, to consider. Monet's 00:31:25.980 --> 00:31:28.640 greatest, most abstract works, the ones that 00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:31.119 anticipate modern art, they coincided exactly 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:33.900 with his physical decline, particularly his failing 00:31:33.900 --> 00:31:36.160 eyesight. Right. He was forced to rely more and 00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:38.880 more on memory, on theory, on his internal concept 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:41.680 of color, because his actual vision was so compromised. 00:31:42.410 --> 00:31:44.390 So the question is, was that final leap into 00:31:44.390 --> 00:31:46.950 abstraction in The Water Lilies primarily a triumph 00:31:46.950 --> 00:31:49.089 of his artistic will, his vision pushing forward? 00:31:49.309 --> 00:31:51.869 Or was it perhaps a brilliant but ultimately 00:31:51.869 --> 00:31:54.250 necessary adaptation to the physical limitations 00:31:54.250 --> 00:31:57.009 imposed on him by his own body? What happens 00:31:57.009 --> 00:32:00.250 artistically when a painter who dedicated his 00:32:00.250 --> 00:32:03.049 life to seeing the world accurately is forced? 00:32:03.480 --> 00:32:05.680 through failing sight, to start painting the 00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:08.539 idea of the pond rather than the verifiable reality 00:32:08.539 --> 00:32:11.559 of it. That shift from observed reality to the 00:32:11.559 --> 00:32:14.220 painted idea, maybe that's the very essence of 00:32:14.220 --> 00:32:16.500 the transition to modern art that Monet embodies. 00:32:16.819 --> 00:32:19.559 Something to think about. Definitely. Thank you 00:32:19.559 --> 00:32:21.720 for joining us for this deep dive into the life 00:32:21.720 --> 00:32:22.759 and work of Claude Monet.