Mad enchantment
Subtitle: Claude Monet and the painting of the water lilies
By: Ross King
Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 2016
Place of publication: London; New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 403
ISBN-13: 9781408861950
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation; Water lilies in art
Description: Mad Enchantment tells the full story behind the creation of the Water Lilies, as the horrors of World War I came ever closer to Paris and Giverny, and a new generation of younger artists, led by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, were challenging the achievements of Impressionism. By early 1914, French newspapers were reporting that Monet, by then 73 and one of the world's wealthiest, most celebrated painters, had retired his brushes. He had lost his beloved wife, Alice, and his eldest son, Jean. His famously acute vision--what Paul Cezanne called "the most prodigious eye in the history of painting"--Was threatened by cataracts. And yet, despite ill health, self-doubt, and advancing age, Monet began painting again on a more ambitious scale than ever before. Linking great artistic achievement to the personal and historical dramas unfolding around it, Ross King presents the most intimate and revealing portrait of an iconic figure in world culture--from his lavish lifestyle and tempestuous personality to his close friendship with the fiery war leader Georges Clemenceau, who regarded the Water Lilies as one of the highest expressions of the human spirit.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.