Irises

Irises is a dynamic oil on canvas painting created by Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) between 1914 and 1917. Although chronologically produced late in the artist’s career, this piece exemplifies the foundational principles of Impressionism that Monet helped pioneer in France decades earlier. The work focuses exclusively on natural subject matter, utilizing broad, gestural brushstrokes and a vibrant, nearly abstract, palette to capture the dense concentration of purple, violet, and white flowers.

The composition is tightly cropped, submerging the viewer within the undulating movement and complex textures of the blossoms. Monet employed oil paint thickly, building up layers that suggest the rich, damp environment of his famed water garden at Giverny. By the 1910s, Monet was increasingly consumed by his large-scale garden series, moving beyond strict representation toward monumental optical fields of color. The emphasis in this piece is less on defining individual blooms and more on achieving a sensory depiction of color vibration and reflected light. The movement of the brushwork conveys the intense energy the artist found within nature, even as the world around him was consumed by the First World War.

This significant example of the artist’s enduring output is a key holding in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Monet’s dedication to capturing the sensory experience of nature established him as a central figure in modern art history. Today, due to the historical age and classification of many of these late works, high-quality prints and studies of masterworks like Irises are often available, allowing this period of Impressionism to be globally accessed through the public domain.