In 1916, as the First World War raged just a few hundred kilometers from his garden at Giverny, Claude Monet turned his gaze ever more intently to the flowers at his doorstep. Day Lilies by Claude Monet, Musée Marmottan Monet belongs to the remarkable series of late works in which Monet, nearly blind from cataracts, painted his beloved gardens with a new intensity and freedom. These paintings were not made for sale or commission; instead, Monet created them for himself, often working on multiple canvases simultaneously, revisiting and reworking them over months or even years.

This particular work stands as a testament to Monet’s determination to paint despite his failing eyesight and the turmoil of the times. The painting captures a dense cluster of day lilies, their orange blossoms emerging from a tangle of green and shadow. Monet’s brushwork here is loose, almost abstract, with petals and leaves dissolving into strokes of color and light. There is no horizon, no sky—only the immersive world of the flowers, seen from so close that the viewer is drawn into their midst.

Unlike earlier Impressionist works where the play of light is crisp and fleeting, here the forms blur and pulse, as if seen through watery eyes or remembered in a dream. Compared to Vincent van Gogh’s sunflowers, which stand upright and solitary, Monet’s lilies are part of a living mass, their individuality subsumed in the riot of growth. After Monet’s death in 1926, many of his late garden paintings remained in his studio, largely unseen by the public. It was only decades later that they were recognized as a crucial part of his artistic legacy, bridging Impressionism and the beginnings of abstraction.

Day Lilies by Claude Monet, Musée Marmottan Monet is now housed in the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, a museum that holds the world’s largest collection of Monet’s works, thanks in part to donations from his son Michel. Today, this painting offers a glimpse into Monet’s final years—a period marked by personal loss, war, and the relentless pursuit of beauty amid chaos.