Where? Gallery 161 of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
When? 1899
What do you see? A pond full of water lilies. The green leaves of the water lilies are resting on top of the water and are scattered across the pond. Many of the water lilies are blooming, and the large flowers stick out of the water. They are predominantly white, but Monet adds some hints of other colors, like blue, pink, red, and yellow, to depict the flowers. The pink and red tones are more visible in the water lilies in the back. Foliage surrounds the pond. A blue Japanese-style wooden footbridge crosses over the pond.

In the background, a dense collection of trees covers the sky. On the left, you can see the hanging leaves of the willows. You can see the reflection of the water lilies, the plants, and the trees in the pond, but at places, you can also see the transparency of the water in the pond. Monet must have had several people that kept its pond very clean to be able to see all these reflections in the water.

Backstory: In 1883, Monet moved to Giverny, about 45 miles Northwest of Paris. In 1893, he got the idea to buy a piece of land with a small pond next to his property. He expanded this pond and turned the land into a Japanese water garden full of bushes, flowers, trees, and water lilies. He also added a Japanese-style wooden bridge which you can see in this painting.

​Several years later, Monet started to paint the pond with the water lilies and the bridge and continued to do so for the last 27 years of his life. Monet chose to omit the sky and the edge of the water in the foreground to try to fully absorb the viewer in the view of the water lily pond.

The Water Lily Garden: Giverny Monet’s Garden is open to the public, and about 500,000 people visit the garden every year. It consists of the house of Monet and two parts of the garden. The first part is the flower garden which is full of common and rare varieties. Monet  developed a love for gardening and was always on the lookout for rare flower species.

The second part of the garden is the Japanese-inspired water garden that you can see in this painting. His design of the water garden was inspired by prints of gardens in Japan that he collected (though Monet had never visited Japan). Monet was so inspired by this garden that he created about 250 paintings of it (though not all of them have survived as Monet destroyed some of them and others have been affected by fire).

​He painted the water lilies at different times of the day and at different times during the year, such that every painting looks a little bit different. For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibits the Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, and the National Gallery of Art shows The Japanese Footbridge. Other examples can be found in, amongst others, the National Gallery, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. 

Who is Monet? Oscar-Claude Monet (1840-1926) was born in Paris. He is considered to be one of the founders of impressionism. Together with artists like Cézanne, Degas, Pissarro, and Renoir, Monet set up several exhibitions in Paris in 1860 and 1870 to expose the public to this new style, including the painting Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, which is now in the National Gallery of Art.

​Monet was a very productive painter and his work has a unique style and subjects. For example, where many people associate sunflowers immediately with Van Gogh, water lilies are associated with Monet. Monet created gardens at all places where he lived, but the water lily pond was by far his favorite garden. He also traveled a lot through Europe to find nice landscapes which he used as an inspiration for his gardens and paintings.

Fun fact: Monet wanted to have exotic plants and water lilies in his garden, but the local community was against it as they were concerned that these exotic flowers would poison the water in Giverny. However, Monet proceeded anyway and imported flowers with the most beautiful colors from around the world. His water lilies came from Egypt and South America.

​In 1912, Monet got diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes and his sight suffered because of that. He could not perceive colors in the same way anymore and that was reflected in his paintings. For example, instead of using predominantly blue, green, and white for the water lilies, he started to use more yellow and purple. As a result of this, Monet decided to paint more abstract paintings beginning in 1915.

​Where? First floor, room 700 of the Denon wing in the Louvre. A smaller version is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art but is currently not on display.
When? The original is from 1827, and the smaller replica is from 1844.
What do you see? In the center, King Sardanapalus of Assyria, dressed in white, lays in his bed which is covered with bright red sheets. On the front corners of his bed are two large elephant heads. His bed stands on top of a large pyre. You can see some woodblocks making up the pyre behind the black slave in the left foreground and on the bottom right.

While rebellion forces surround his palace, Sardanapalus orders his eunuchs and palace officers to cut the throats of his mistresses. He did not want anyone or anything that gave him pleasure during his life to survive him. He has a calm and disinterested expression which contrast strongly with the cruel scene around him. Notice also that all mistresses and Sardanapalus wear expensive jewelry as the king also wanted his royal possessions to be burned with him on the pyre. On the bottom right is also a collection of crowns and jewelry that are about to go down.

• Scenes on the right side: On the right side of the bed, a woman leans back onto the bed to escape from the soldier in front of her, who is about to grab his sword to kill her. To the right of the soldier, you can see the smoke and flames that are burning down the capital of Sardanapalus’ empire. To the left of the soldier, another mistress hangs herself to prevent getting killed by others. In the right foreground, a mistress of Sardanapalus is killed by a eunuch who stabs her with a knife in the throat. To their right are two men. One resigns to his fate, his hands on his head, while the other seems to beg Sardanapalus to stop the madness.
• Scenes on the left side: On the bottom left, a decorated white horse is about to be beheaded by a slave. Above the slave, a half-nude woman lays lifeless on the bed of the king. She was his favorite mistress, Myrrha. To her left is another woman whose face is covered by a green sheet, and to her left, a man tries to remove a spear from his chest. Above him are two women who are still able to escape the slaughtering. One of them has prepared a decanter, cup, and towel for the king in case he wants any of that.

Backstory: Delacroix got his inspiration for the theme of this painting from a play written by the English poet Lord Byron, who in turn was inspired by older texts on the story of Sardanapalus. In 1821, Lord Byron wrote a play called Sardanapalus: A Tragedy (Amazon link to this book) which describes the crazy story of the death of Sardanapalus. In preparation for this painting, Delacroix also consulted some older writings on the death of Sardanapalus. He combined all these sources to create a unique story on the death of Sardanapalus.

We can still identify some figures in this painting based on Lord Byron’s play. For example, the man on the left removing a spear from his chest is Salemenes, the brother-in-law of Sardanapalus. He just came back from the battlefield and will die after he removes the spear. And the woman lying on the bed is Myrrha, the lover of Sardanapalus. According to Lord Byron’s story, she was the only one with Sardanapalus on top of the pyre.

Who is Sardanapalus? According to the Greek writer Ctesias, Sardanapalus lived in the 7th century BC. He was the last king of Assyria, which was a very large empire in the Middle East between the 25th and 7th century BC. He lived an extremely luxurious life and was very lazy. According to Sardanapalus, the main purpose of life was physical desire. He followed his own advice, dressed in woman’s clothes, wore makeup, and was surrounded by many male and female mistresses.

As many people got annoyed by his lifestyle, a group of rebellions formed to defeat Sardanapalus and his troops. Sardanapalus went down in a typical fashion. As some point during the war with the rebellions, he thought that he had defeated the rebellions and started a big party. However, the rebellions came with reinforcements and defeated Sardanapalus, leading to the end of the Assyrian empire. Before he got caught, Sardanapalus burned himself together with many of his eunuchs and mistresses, and most of his royal possessions.

Who is Delacroix? Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) was the leader of the Romantic painters in France. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was the main artistic rival during his life. Whereas Ingres was the leader of the school of Neoclassical painting, Delacroix believed in the Romantic style and was inspired by artists like Rubens, Tintoretto, and Veronese.

​The style of Delacroix can be characterized by an emphasis on using colors and depicting emotions, and not on providing a clear composition and shapes of the people in his paintings. In 1830, he painted his most famous work, Liberty Leading the People, which is on display in the Louvre as well. The work of Delacroix has been important for the development of Impressionism later in the 18th century. Artists like Degas, Manet, and Renoir greatly admired the work of Delacroix.

Fun fact: This painting is the largest uncommissioned by Delacroix. He had high hopes of this work and created many sketches that are still available for this painting. Below are two pictures of sketches he made that are in possession of the Louvre.

The painting was first exhibited in the Salon of 1828 in Paris. The painting got many negative reviews. One viewer went so far as threatening to cut off Delacroix's hands such that he could never paint again. There were several reasons for these negative reactions, such as the messy composition and incoherent use of colors. Whereas the French State bought earlier paintings of Delacroix, they did not buy this one. Instead, Delacroix took it back to his studio where it stayed until 1845. He only sold the painting after he made a much smaller replica of the painting owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The larger painting was not on public display until 1921 when the Louvre bought it.

Nowadays, this painting is highly appreciated. Looking back, it is one of the early Romantic paintings. Whereas people in the early 19th century were still used to the clarity of the Neoclassical paintings by Ingres and colleagues, the Romantic paintings focused on showing emotions in a more chaotic setting.
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Interested in a copy for yourself? Poster or canvas.

Where? Gallery 153 of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
When? 1868-1869
What do you see? Two people are shown in a bedroom. On the right is a man standing against the door with his legs wide and his hands in his pocket. He is standing in the darker part of the room, and you can see his large shadow on the door. On the left, is a woman kneeling down. She is partially undressed, and the lamp behind her lights her white dress. The woman is facing away from the man, and she may be crying.

Behind the woman is a round table with a lamp on it and a sewing box with a piece of clothing inside. On the floor lays a white corset. The single bed is neatly made up with the woman’s hat and a cloak at the foot end. The wall is decorated with wallpaper with pink flowers on it. In the background is a fireplace and above it hangs a mirror. On the left, you can see the top hat of the man on top of a closet. Above the top hat hangs a map on the wall.

Backstory: After painting this work, the painting remained in the studio of Degas for 36 years, until he put it up for sale in 1905. Before that, only a few friends of Degas had seen this painting. The interpretation of this painting is open to quite some debate and this uncertainty adds to the appeal of the painting.

Degas captures a specific moment in time, with little indication of the past and future, making it harder to interpret the painting. Degas did this more often early in his career, for example, in the Women Ironing in the Norton Simon Museum. It is likely that Degas kept the meaning of Interior vague on purpose. All he ever mentioned about this work was that it was a genre painting with the title ‘Interior’. Especially during the period in which this he created this work, Degas wanted to challenge existing norms and may, therefore, have enjoyed creating a painting with an ambiguous interpretation.

Interpretation: One of the earlier interpretations of this painting is about rape, and that is why this painting is also known as ‘The Rape’. According to this interpretation, the girl is a worker and the man is her boss. The girl has just been raped and is crying, while the man is standing against the door overthinking his deed and showing some remorse (some say that there are traces of blood on the bed which would support this interpretation). However, this interpretation is not accepted by many.

​Over time, art historians have searched for various literary sources that could have inspired this painting. And while some literary sources match some aspects of the painting, none of them are truly consistent with this painting. One of the most convincing of these interpretations is that this painting depicts the wedding night for the couple in the room. However, one year before the wedding they have murdered the former husband of the woman, and in this painting, they are overwhelmed by the feeling of how bad that was.

Who is Degas? Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas (1834-1917), better known as Edgar Degas, was born in Paris. He was both a painter and a sculptor and more than half of his works are related to dance. One such example is The Ballet Class in the Musée d’Orsay, and another is his statue of The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer in the National Gallery of Art. Together with painters like Cézanne, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, and Renoir, he is one of the founders of impressionism. His works often have some complex psychological meaning.

Later in his career, he became a specialists in depicting movement in his works. He learned painting at an early age, and when he was 21, he met Ingres, who stimulated him to pursue an artistic career. He started by copying some details of the works of some famous Renaissance painters, like Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian, but gradually developed his own style. At the beginning of his career, he was an Impressionist, but his style evolved into Realism. He was also an art collector and was particularly fond of the works of Daumier, Delacroix, and Ingres.

Fun fact: One of the hobbies that Degas developed in the 1880s was photography. He made and collected photos which he used as inspirations for his paintings. While photography was only invented at the beginning of the 19th century, Degas already used a ‘photographic’ style in some of his earlier work.

​His Interior painting, for example, is comparable to a photograph, as he captures a single moment in time and does not include many clues on what happened before and after the picture. As discussed, this leaves the interpretation of the painting open for discussion. It is therefore not surprising that Degas later got very interested in photography.
Interested in a copy for yourself? Poster.