Claude Monet’s Water Lilies are widely recognized as a
celebration of nature and a call to visual experience. The skilled
brushwork, vivid color, and immersive quality of the paintings
suspend thoughts of the outside world and its concerns. And yet,
when one realizes that these works were made during a period of
social and political turmoil—rapid changes of government, the
Dreyfus Affair, and the destruction and devastation of World War
I—questions arise about the personal, cultural, and historical
contexts within which they were created. In this book, James H.
Rubin explores these conditions and shows how Monet’s work—said
to be a harbinger of abstraction—appeals not only to the eye but
also to something deep in modern consciousness. The myth of
Impressionism is that it was reviled and misunderstood, but by the
1890s Monet was rich by anyone’s standards, and his works were
considered French cultural treasures. Monet was featured in a
propaganda film in response to German militarism, and he was
persuaded by Georges Clemenceau to donate a number of his Water
Lilies paintings to the French nation following the Treaty of
Versailles. Taking this into account, Rubin uncovers how the theme
of floating lily pads could serve political ends, exposing
relationships between Monet’s apparently subject-free art and its
material circumstances in the modern world. Engagingly written,
masterfully argued, and featuring more than 150 illustrations, Why
Monet Matters is a major study of an artist who had the will and
the talent to remain relevant to his time without conceding to its
fashions. Scholars, students, and those who appreciate Monet and
Impressionism will value and learn from this book.
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