European Travelog D4E1: The Lilies of Orangerie
Today's the big day - Monet's water lilies at the Orangerie in the morning and the ocean of history and art at the Louvre in the afternoon. It's a bright and sunny morning as we set out to Musée de l'Orangerie. Located on the bank of the Seine, to the west of the Tuileries Garden , this building was originally built in 1852 to store the orange trees of the Tuileries garden during the the winter. While oranges are great, the claim to fame of this building is as the repository of eight large Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet. As the museum website says: Offered to the French State by the painter Claude Monet on the day that followed the Armistice of November 11, 1918 as a symbol for peace, the Water Lilies are installed according to plan at the Orangerie Museum in 1927, a few months after his death. This unique set, a true "Sixtine Chapel of Impressionism", testifies to Monet’s later work. It was designed as a real environment and crowns the Water Lilies cycl...