The Story of Monet's Water Lily Series at the Musée de l'Orangerie, 1918-1927
with Anne Catherine Abecassis
On November 12, 1918, the day after the victory of France over Germany, Claude Monet wrote to his old and glorious friend Georges Clemenceau, "the father of
Victory", to offer a series of decorative panels to the French State: a true monument to Peace.
After eight years of negotiations, political intrigue, doubts and discouragement the series was finally completed. The Orangerie Water Lily remain one of the greatest and
most monumental achievements of painting of the first half of the twentieth century, in many ways the ultimate masterpiece of Claude Monet’s long career.