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Celebrate Earth Day with a family art activity inspired by Claude Monet’s Nymphéas (Water Lilies). Follow the prompts below or download the family guide.
LEARN
In 1883 Monet moved to a home in Giverny, northwest of Paris. He eventually bought the property and planted his famous gardens. One of the most notable features was the lily pond with a Japanese bridge that became frequent and important subjects of his paintings. In this Water Lilies, he excluded the shoreline completely and depicted only the water’s surface, with reflections of the trees at the water’s unseen edge, thus giving the viewer an ambiguous, floating perspective.
THINK
Claude Monet was very interested in painting places at different times of day and during different seasons. What season do you think he painted this? Why?
IMAGINE
Imagine you are a frog. What would you do here? What if you were a fish? What would you see from under the water as you look up?
TALK
Monet painted these water lilies floating on a pond by his house in France many times. What is something you like so much that you could draw it again and again?
CREATE
Monet designed this garden around his house and filled it with flowers and a bridge over a pond.
If you could design a garden what would it look like?
SHARE
Write about or draw a picture of your garden, then post on social media and share by tagging @thewadsworth.
Above: Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926), Nymphéas (Water Lilies), 1907. Oil on canvas. Bequest of Anne Parrish Titzell, 1957.622