Claude Monet was a French painter who was well known for paintings that captured nature as he saw it. During his career, he often used his own impressionistic style – often painting landscapes. His inspirations came from his garden. He attended the Suisse Academy of Arts in Paris, and some of his most popular works are “Poplars,” “Haystacks,” and “Water Lilies.”
“With Monet, seemingly everything has already been seen or said,” said Max Carter, Christie’s Auction House Vice Chairman in an interview with CNN. “‘Le Bassin Aux Nympheas’ which has never been exhibited or offered at auction, is, however, that rarest thing: A masterpiece rediscovered.”
Recently, a larger version of his “Water Lilies” was found after being in a family vault for more than 50 years. It is expected to fetch close to $65 million at Christie’s auction house in New York. The name of the painting is “Le Bassin Aux Nympheas,” which is French for “Water Lily Pond.” This painting is part of a series of water lily paintings he has done in the past. Another piece of art in this series sold for $84.7 million in May of 2018.
“It’s really interesting to see that this was kinda tucked away in someone’s home for so long. Now we’re seeing it as part of a series that’s actually from one of his last before he died,” art teacher Ms. Catherine Coon said. “Which meant he pretty much had cataracts so he’s almost blind but when he painted his series of water lilies and now transitioning into this one.”
Monet often used a style of art called impressionism. What is impressionism? The impressionist movement began in the 1860s and finished by the end of the century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Monet as “a key figure in the Impressionist movement that transformed French painting in the second half of the nineteenth century.”
“It seems a lot more sketchy than his other paintings and incomplete,” junior Elise Tarver said. “You can see how he starts a good majority of his artwork and how, at first, it’s all messy and eventually it will get more refined as he finishes it.”
Monet, in his later years, suffered from cataracts, which caused him to not be able to finish the newest painting.
“We are getting almost pure abstraction now. I think it could mean that we might have more people that sort of find or have these pieces from other artists that resurface,” Coon said.
This could mean good things for the art and art collectors community. It also gives people greater understanding of some of the most important artists from certain eras and expands on what we previously thought of them.
