Monet was an artist that came out of the Impressionist era of the art world. One of his most famous paintings being the water lilies from his garden. However, it wasn’t until his later years that his passion for painting manifest with pure dream worthy quality. This passion helped him push forward after World War I, and losing his first son along with his wife. After World War I, the world was celebrating it’s new found peace at the same time mourning the loss of family and friends. Monet was like many and fell into depression and left the world of art for a few years. However, he soon found the inspiration to paint again after his friends encouraged him to pick up the paint brush and use his sadness to paint.

He created his dream gardens at his home in Giverny. He painted in the dream like quality finished and unfinished brush strokes. He wanted to take viewers into his garden and surround in this paradise he created for himself. Monet was a mad man. He filled 2 studios full of paintings of his paradise and he shared it with the world. He didn’t let his growing age stop him. He didn’t let his medical difficulties stop him. He never let blindness impede upon his dream. He started to play with the styles that manifested with artist like Picasso but stuck to the dream like quality.

I went to the exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas to see his work and learn more about the great artist during the later period of his life. The soft natural paintings were complex and simple. You could fell the paintings pull you in and help you see across the far distances of his special garden. His depression became his fuel for his work and reason to continue his projects. The boundaries that would have impede most artist from ever continue did not give him pause. He was a genius artist and one of a kind. His paintings that he developed can cause the whole room to pause and feel pulled to his bold strokes. It is truly something else to see in person. Monet is a man that should be recognized for more than his water lilies but the passion and painting madness he took upon himself to complete.  So make a trip and plan to see Monet: The Late Years before it leaves the Kimbell Art Museum on September 15, 2019.