Water Lilies (Agapanthus left panel)

Step into a pond that has no clear edges, no horizon, and no sky to speak of. This is one of Claude Monet's famous Water Lilies, painted around 1914 in his garden at Giverny in France. By this point Monet was in his seventies, his eyesight was fading from cataracts, and yet he kept painting the same lily pond again and again, trying to capture the way light shifted across the water through the day. The result is a hazy world of soft greens, blues, and lavenders, with lily pads floating like little clouds across the surface.

This canvas is actually one panel from a much larger work. Monet planned huge wraparound paintings meant to surround the viewer completely, like stepping inside the water itself. The style is Impressionism, which means he cared less about sharp detail and more about feeling and atmosphere. Look closely and the flowers almost dissolve into loose dabs of color, but step back and the whole pond seems to shimmer. It is a calm, almost dreamy painting, and that was the point. Monet hoped these works could offer people a quiet place to rest their eyes and their minds.