Nymphéas, Japanese Bridge

Nymphéas, Japanese Bridge is a late painting by Claude Monet of the wooden footbridge over the water-lily pond in his garden at Giverny. The Philadelphia Museum of Art dates it 1918–26, the last years of the artist's life. Nearly square, about 89 by 91 centimeters, it shows the bridge as a dark arch almost buried under foliage, painted in thick, caked strokes of green, red, ocher and violet. Wildenstein lists it as number 1930, among the many late versions of the motif.

What you're looking at

The bridge is there, but you have to look for it. A broad, dark green arch sweeps across the canvas from left to right, about a third of the way down. Above it, a mass of foliage in olive, gold, rust and plum fills the top of the picture: the wisteria that by then grew over a trellis on the bridge, together with the trees beyond.

Under the arch, the pond is a dark, glowing space. Reflections of the bridge and the plants drop down into it as vertical streaks of green, red and yellow, and a few horizontal touches suggest lily pads on the surface. A patch of yellow-green light gleams just below the arch, in the center of the picture, where the sky shows through the leaves and bounces off the water.

At the lower left, the bank is a tangle of pale green, pink and white strokes, perhaps flowering plants. At the bottom left corner, a patch of orange-red adds a hot accent. The edges of the canvas are dark and dense, so the eye is pulled into the center, under the bridge.

The late bridge: what makes this version distinct

Monet first painted the footbridge in 1899 as a clear, graceful arch in summer greens, as in the Met's Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies and Philadelphia's own Japanese Footbridge and the Water Lily Pool, Giverny. Twenty years later, the subject had changed. The bridge was covered in wisteria, and Monet's eyesight had been damaged by cataracts, which distorted his perception of color, especially blues. The late bridges are painted in reds, browns, ochers and deep greens, with the forms dissolved into dense, almost abstract surfaces.

This version is among the darker and more enclosed. Compared with Mia's The Japanese Bridge of about 1923–25, where the arch is still a readable shape, the Philadelphia bridge is nearly submerged in its surroundings. Compared with the Marmottan's horizontal The Japanese Bridge of 1918, it is tighter and heavier.

How it was painted

The museum's description stresses the thick, caked-on paint. Monet built up the surface in many layers, often wet into dry, so that colors sit on top of each other without fully mixing. He worked with large brushes and dragged the paint, leaving ridges and gaps. These late canvases were painted in the garden and in his large studio at Giverny, where he was also working on the great water-lily panels later installed at the Orangerie.

Monet's last years

After the death of his wife Alice in 1911 and his son Jean in 1914, Monet withdrew into his garden and his work. His cataracts worsened from about 1912, and he was operated on in 1923. The late bridge pictures, many of which stayed in his studio until his death in 1926, were long seen as the work of a failing artist. After 1945, painters such as the Abstract Expressionists found in them a direct ancestor, and their reputation rose sharply.

Where to see it

The painting is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which also holds several earlier Monets. See our Japanese Footbridge series hub, Giverny, Where to See Monet and Claude Monet.