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 cycle begun nearly thirty years before. The set is one of the largest monumental achievements of early twentieth-century painting. 

It's an absolutely immersive experience to enter Monet's room and view the large curved panels of water lilies as seen at  different times of the day. Monet was nearly blind as he worked in his final years on what was to be his masterpieces.








A close-up of one of the lilies still captures Monet's brushstrokes.

A combination of purples, yellows, reds and greens capture the lily pads, the flowers, the water and play of light.

The pond at sunset

More pictures of the Water Lilies.

How we did it

We used the Paris Museum Pass. Plan to spend a little over an hour here viewing the Water Lilies as well as the other exhibits at the Orangerie. The museum has a locker for small bags.

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