Irises

Claude Monet · 1914–17

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

200 × 200.7 cm (78 3/4 × 79 in.); Framed: 203.8 × 204.5 × 6.4 cm (80 1/4 × 80 1/2 × 1 1/2 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Impressionism

Monet's *Irises* is a luminous explosion of violet and green, painted with the sweeping confidence of an artist at the height of his powers. By 1914, Monet had spent decades cultivating his garden at Giverny into a living studio, where the flowers, light, and water became his primary subjects. The irises he painted during this period reflect his late style — loose, gestural brushwork that dissolves individual blooms into a shimmering field of colour and movement. Rather than depicting a botanically precise flower, Monet captures the sensation of standing among them, the way massed petals absorb and scatter afternoon light. It is well documented that Monet was already suffering from cataracts during these years, yet this work shows no dimming of his sensitivity to tone and hue — if anything, his colour choices grew bolder and more intuitive. Now held at the Art Institute of Chicago, the original rewards close attention, but its real power comes from the cumulative effect of layered paint and visible brushstrokes. A hand-painted oil reproduction honours that physical quality, recreating the depth and texture that a print can never replicate, so the vitality Monet found in his garden can live on a wall of your own.