Claude Monet - Irises (Iris) Napkin

Irises (Iris), around 1924-1925 - Claude Monet, oil on canvas. Claude Monet, born in Paris in 1840 and deceased in Giverny in 1926, was a French painter and a leading figure of Impressionism. Created in the last years of his life, this large painting draws on the irises growing beside the pond in his garden at Giverny. It remained out of public view for about a century and was long known mainly through black-and-white photographs. The work shows the freedom of Monet’s late style, with bold touches of colour and loosely defined forms. Tall green leaves sweep across the canvas, interspersed with yellow irises and a few mauve blooms. Broad, luminous strokes of white, pink and lavender suggest light and clouds reflected in the water, blurring the boundaries between the plants and their surroundings.