The Water Lilies, Green Reflections, center

Step into a pond and you might feel something like this painting offers. Claude Monet spent the final decades of his life obsessed with the water garden at his home in Giverny, France, painting the same lily pond over and over in different lights and moods. This work is part of his famous "Water Lilies" series, and it belongs to a set of huge mural-sized canvases he created for the Orangerie museum in Paris. The dark greens and blues here suggest reflections of trees and sky on the water's surface, with just a few pink lily blossoms floating quietly among the shadows.

Monet was a leader of Impressionism, a movement that focused less on sharp detail and more on capturing the feeling of light and atmosphere. By the time he made this painting in 1926, he was nearly blind from cataracts, which may explain the deep, murky tones and loose brushwork. Rather than showing you the edges of the pond or any horizon, he pulls you right into the water itself, so there is no clear up or down. Some people find these late works peaceful and meditative, while others see a kind of sadness in them, painted by an old man saying goodbye to the garden he loved most.