WATER LILIES

Claude Monet's 'Le bassin aux nympheas,' or 'Water Lily Pond,' fetched more than $80 million at an auction in London recently. The 1919 oil painting is part of the impressionist master's four-work water lily series.
Old Trunks image of pond lilies on Big Sand Lake. Priceless.


We don't pretend to be a Claude Monet when it comes to artistry, although there was a time when I considered taking painting seriously. It came and went with my teenage years and seemed to allow me to get some thoughts out and on canvas. One painting scared the new owner, it was called 'Steaming Lilacs" and it was impressionism.

Monet's representation of light was based on his knowledge of the laws of optics as well as his own observations of his subjects. He often showed natural color by breaking it down into its different components as a prism does. Eliminating black and gray from his palette, Monet rejected entirely the academic approach to landscape.

In his later works Monet allowed his vision of light to dissolve the real structures of his subjects. To do this he chose simple matter, making several series of studies of the same object at different times of day or year, haystacks, morning views of the Seine, the Gare Saint-Lazare (1876–78), poplars (begun 1890), the Thames, the celebrated group of Rouen Cathedral (1892–94), and the last great lyrical series of water lilies (1899, and 1904–25), painted in his own garden at Giverny.

What would happen if we reviewed old master painters and tried to capture the concept with a digital camera? Can we capture sunflowers like Van Gogh without cutting off our ear? Could we paint a series of dancers like Degas?

Now, my question is: Did Degas paint the series of dancers before the series of women in the tub, near the tub, drying off from the bath? Is dancing such a hard exercise one must bath after?

Alas, I do not know the answer. I do know I am probably not going to find a room full of ballerina's soon. Guess Old Trunks needs to find some up on their toes fisherman.

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