Visit at L'Orangerie

At the beginning of the 20th century, industrial revolution was at its apogee. The first World War was raging. They were also about to face an economical crisis. In the midst of all that turmoil, an artist created a haven for peace and tranquility. It wasn’t a place in specific, nor a philosophy of life. It wasn’t either a book or a proposal for social reorganization and class equality. It was a serie of paintings. His name: Claude Monet. His work: Les Nymphéas.

In 1909, Monet declared about his project of Les Nympheas : “ A place were the overwrought would relax, taking example on the stagnant waters, and, for him who lived  in it, this room would have offered an shelter for a peaceful travel in this flowery aquarium”. Years later, in November of 1918, Monet gave some of his Nymphéas  to the french state as a monument to peace. Military peace but also to internal peace of men. These gifts were installed in the National Gallery of l’Orangerie in Paris and are still there to be viewed and experienced.

At l’Orangerie, I had the chance to visit his work.  It was constituted of two oval-shaped rooms  covered with his 6 meter-long paradises. I really wanted to test Monet’s theory on reclusion and peacefulness upon seeing his works. It revealed itself true. I was subdued in peace and admiration. In the middle of the rooms stand some abnormally long benches on which everyone was sited. I sat as well, joining the myriads of tourists. There were some signs asking the visitors to maintain silence. The museum directors were absolutely right. In order to better understand and experience these works, it was better to be seated and to keep silence so as to immerse one self into these purple and blue waters of never ending still/moving waters. Because of his particular technique the whole image is mesmerizing, mystified and physically moving because there is not one single predetermining sketch and every ‘coup’ is curved. I think I stayed for at least 45 minutes in front of one of the paintings, relaxing and thinking of nothing else. The itchiness of the tourists walking around and taking pictures vanished. As Monet said, one could be transported into his japanese garden at Giverny where he painted this canvases.  Monet’s intention was really to surround the viewer with his garden. He left behind the two-dimensional or even the three-dimensional classical painting to go for a fourth or even a fifth dimension by plunging the spectator into this flourished world. In it, one is surrounded and nothing else enters it’s world, he is alone in front of the painting and then when no one expects it, a sigh of relief, peace and tranquility comes out. Your back curves a bit by the relaxation of the muscles, your arms feel light, your problems disappear and then your imagination starts to float. 

I had seen another exposition of Monet in Milan at the Palazzo Reale. Nevertheless, the fact that l’Orangerie disposes the paintings in a circular motion around the spectator is what differentiated the two expos, one being impressive and the other simply immersing. This is a must for everyone traveling to Paris. It is a way to escape the stress of Paris’s traffic, on the road and sidewalk, and to relieve from the problem’s of everyday’s life for an instant and enjoy tranquility in one exquisite centenary-old japanese garden.