This painting probably evolved alongside Monet’s 'grandes décorations' in his vast purpose-built studio at Giverny. This bird’s eye view, possibly from the Japanese bridge, shows a winding path near the pool, bordered with lush irises. Monet applied thick purples, blues and greens using bold, even crude strokes. The effects were possibly induced by double cataracts which altered his vision.

Key facts

Artist Claude Monet Artist dates 1840 - 1926 Full title Irises Date made about 1914-17 Medium and support Oil on canvas Dimensions 200.7 x 149.9 cm Acquisition credit Bought, 1967 Inventory number NG6383 Location in Gallery Room 41

Further information

In depth

• Technical Bulletin: Monet's Palette in the Twentieth Century

• Ashok Roy
  Technical Bulletin Volume 28, 2007

  Abstract 

  The National Gallery possesses two large canvas paintings by Claude Monet: Water-Lilies and Irises. Both were painted in his studio at Giverny. Towards the latter part of his career Monet changed his palette and method of painting and began to paint more simply and on a much larger scale than in his earlier work. At the same time he appears to have restricted his palette to materials which he believed would guarantee the better survival of his paintings. For this reason he abandoned chrome yellow pigments (with the exception of zinc chromate yellow) and consistently used cadmium yellows instead; he took up cobalt violet (cobalt arsenate) and no longer used ‘emerald green’ (copper acetoarsenite), only employing viridian for his later works. These changes in materials and methods from Monet’s pre-20th-century work are described.

  Keywords

  cadmium pigments, Claude Monet, cobalt blue, cobalt violet, early twentieth-century painting materials, French ultramarine, Impressionist technique, Irises, Monet’s late technique, Monet’s palette, Monet’s studio, vermilion, viridian, Water-Lilies

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  National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 28, 2007

   

  Monet’s Palette in the Twentieth Century: Water-Lilies and Irises

  Ashok Roy

   

  The National Gallery possesses two large late paintings by Claude Monet dating from the years in which he was working on his grand Water-Lily Decorations which were ultimately donated by the artist to the French state (note 1) The National Gallery Water-Lilies (NG 6343; Wildenstein no. W1978 [note 2]; plate 1) was painted as one of many variations of the water-lily pond theme in the third – and largest – specially designed studio he had built from 1914 in the garden of his house at Giverny, and must therefore date from after the spring of 1916 when the construction of the building had finally been completed (note 3). However, the picture was not destined to be included in the final state-commissioned decorative scheme for the Orangerie building in Paris. The second painting, Irises (NG 6383; Wildenstein no. W1829; plate 2), which was painted between 1914 and 1917 and shows a winding garden path with a profusion of flowers at its borders (note 4), is smaller in overall scale and more upright in format, but is of the same height (200.7 cm) as the Water-Lilies, which Monet had fixed as a standard height for the finished Water-Lily series and for many of the associated pictures he developed over this period.

   

  Water-Lilies (also known later as ‘Nirvana Jaune’) is on long-term loan to Tate Modern in London, where it is currently shown in conjunction with paintings by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Joan Mitchell as part of Tate’s recently revised hang (note 5); Irises forms part of the main floor display at Trafalgar Square, allowing visitors to make comparisons with earlier works by Monet and other nineteenth-century pictures. The painter’s great celebrity, success and reputation in the latter part of his career engendered much interest in his work and in his attitudes to painting; this resulted in a flow of friends and distinguished visitors to his Giverny studio (note 6). The studio itself consisted of a single large room 23 x 12 m and 15 m high, with blind walls and natural light admitted through two rows of windows in the roof. Some control of the light and its diffusion was achieved by unfurling a large translucent white ruched fabric blind which could be drawn horizontally across the glazing (fig. 1) (note 7). This arrangement can be seen in a number of photographs of the studio, both where it is unoccupied and when Monet is present (note 8). The very large mounted canvases for the Water-Lily paintings were 200 x 425 cm (as the National Gallery picture) and were ranged around the studio in various semicircular sequences held upright on specially made easels, each supported by at least two low wooden platforms fitted with casters. Some had as many as five wheeled supports. The contemporary photographs also give a clear impression of the physical arduousness of painting on this scale as well as the very large quantities of   --- 27 pages..

  To cite this article we suggest using

  Roy, A. 'Monet's Palette in the Twentieth Century: "Water-Lilies" and "Irises"'. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 28, pp 58–68.
  https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/technical-bulletin/roy2007