These paintings by Monet are again of his lovely water lilies, but special in the fact that they are panorama views. Each painting takes up an entire wall, stretching long and high with continuous garden displays.
The rooms in which these paintings are held are huge, white ovals. According to the museum, they were designed by Monet "to create a 'decompression space' between the city's agitation and his work." He wanted people to be able to actually fully enjoy the paintings.
And his plan worked. I was blown away by the magnitude and beauty of it all. To paint on that kind of a scale is pretty amazing. It also helped that I had just recently been to Giverny and had seen the garden in real life. So I was able to really appreciate the life in what he painted.
We weren't allowed to take pictures in the rooms, but here are a few published by the museum:
The rest of the museum was dedicated to other impressionist painters. There was Renoir, Cezanne, Rousseau, and Picasso - to name a few. Renoir is my other favorite artist, so I was excited to see his works in person. On display was my favorite painting of his: 'Jeunes Filles au Piano' (Young Girls at the Piano).
There was also a special exhibition when I went, of the artist Chaim Soutine, called 'Order out of Chaos.' This was really fascinating. Soutine liked to distort his paintings, no matter if they were portraits, landscapes, still lifes, whatever. I thought it was in interesting idea. The viewer could still understand the paintings, but it added an extra sense of turmoil to them all. I especially liked his landscapes, most of all one called 'La Route folle a Cagnes' (the Crazy Road to Cagnes):
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