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Art Analysis: Claude Monet's Water Lilies :: Claude Monet Visual Art Painting Essays Papers

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     Have you ever looked at a pond and squinted your eyes? Well if you have you would know exactly how Claude Monet felt. Around the time of this painting Monet was losing his eyesight. It seems to me that this painting was actually meant to be realistic, Monet just painted what he saw, how he saw it. It's kind of weird how he achieved this fuzzy look, he doesn't use any real hard edges on any of the forms, but they aren't really faded that much either, It could just be the use of alike colors (in this case green and blue) which make the edges of the lilies fade into the edge of the water.

     One thing I can't figure out is how this painting is balanced so well. The concept of putting all the lilies on the right side would seem to me to weigh that side down. Then once again the alike colors come into play and they just seem to fade into each other when you stand back and look at it as a whole. Then also the flowers at the bottom of the painting are the brightest part of it and since they are in the middle they just even it out by being the most attentive part.