Monet and the lily pond

In the National Botanical Garden in Tbilisi, Georgia, are several water lily ponds. The flowering lilies are pink and white. They are reminiscent of the series of about 250 oil paintings about ‘Water Lilies’ – otherwise known as Nympheas – by French impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926), but on a significantly smaller scale.

Monet’s paintings of water lilies were created in his garden at Giverny – and were almost his main focus for the last thirty years of his life. He moved to Giverny in 1883 and lived there for 43 years. He bought a small island and planted a garden which is depicted in his paintings, and is now a museum.

After several visits to the Tbilisi water lily ponds I noticed a jigsaw puzzle of Monet’s water lilies, and couldn’t resist buying it. The picture is part (the bottom part) of one painting in the water lily series called Waterlilies (1916-1919) – also known as Evening Waterlilies. The real painting is held at the Musee Marmottan in Paris. It wasn’t until Monet and the lily pond came together as I constructed the jigsaw that I once again appreciated the strength of colours, the contrast of light and shadow, and the brush strokes that made this a complex and elaborate painting.

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