Irises
1914–17
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
200 × 200.7 cm (78 3/4 × 79 in.); Framed: 203.8 × 204.5 × 6.4 cm (80 1/4 × 80 1/2 × 1 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
4887
Art Historical Context
Claude Monet's *Irises* (1914–17), a monumental oil on canvas measuring nearly 200 cm square, captures the artist's lifelong fascination with his Giverny garden. As a cornerstone of Impressionism, Monet revolutionized painting by emphasizing fleeting light and color over precise detail. This late-career work, housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Department of Painting and Sculpture of, showcases his garden blooms in vibrant purples and greens, rendered with loose, expressive brushstrokes that blur the boundary between flowers and atmosphere. Painted during World War I, when Monet retreate...
About the Artist
Claude Monet · 1840–1926
Claude Monet, born Oscar-Claude Monet on November 14, 1840, in Paris and raised in Le Havre, Normandy, began his artistic journey as a successful teenage caricaturist. His formal training started at the Le Havre secondary school of the arts in 1851, where he received his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard. Around 1858, he met Eugène Boudin, who became his pivotal mentor, introducin...