Mad Enchantment

This is a great story of Monet and his work on the water lillie paintings, but it it so much more, it tells an interwoven story of Monet, his family and freinds, the world he lived in and his own thoughts. This is backed up with quotes from the many letters people once wrote. Ross King has a great style of telling you a story with a lot of facts and making it entertaining. Great book.

It's an amazingly in-depth portrayal of Monet in his last years and the impact of World War I and his declining eyesight on his art and temperament. Perfect for someone who loves art history.

This is not a biography of Monet’s life. It is not a review of his prolific body of work. It is a story of the last 20 years or so, of the last living, and arguably greatest, Impressionist artist. The story is well positioned amidst the historical transition in France from the Belle Epoch through the horrors of German occupation in WWI. Some reviewers were disappointed by the focus on Clemenceau....I felt it was a bonus. Their lives were clearly intertwined, and I felt that I learned a lot about the marvelous old Tiger and his own epic role in history, and his strong advocacy for Monet. My strong likes include the accurate portrayal of Monet’s retreat to Giverny, and how he generated hundreds of paintings with his intermingled love of gardening on a grand scale. Compared to a sterile or idealized portrayal of Monet, I love the portrayal of Monet’s humanistic features: the good and the bad. We witness an artist, recognizing that he is past his prime, and close to death, physically and mentally struggling to complete one last epic work: the Grand Decoration. These are the black times in the closing years of any great artist. The book could well be considered the final chapter of Mr. King’s wonderful book “The Judgement of Paris”. Without reading that book first, “Mad Enchantment” could seem very incomplete. We learn for instance, that there are still strong critics of the whole Impressionist movement in the 1920’s, just as there were at the start of the Impressionist movement. Also since this book focuses on the struggles to complete the Grand Decoration with the water lilies, it skims over the dozens, if not hundreds, of other paintings produced by Monet during this time. If the story line seems disjointed it’s because Monet's efforts were mercurial during this period, ranging from frenetic painting, to months of inactivity, to months of physical struggling with his cataracts. Mr King is a great story teller. His great skill is placing the subject of his writings into appropriate historical context. He did the same with “Brunelleschi’s Dome”. I came away with a real sense of Monet’s last years, a greater impression of his will to live and create, and a real sadness for his personal struggles at the end of his life. He becomes “knowable” like a real acquaintance....and perhaps that is the greatest feat of Mr. King’s work. For readers who want a complete overview of the life of Monet and his work, there are other bibliographies. Carla Rachman’s 1997 effort for the Phaidon series of artists, is a good example. In fact there are many similarities of how Rachman and King record the last years of Monet’s life.

I am a 70-year-old artist. Reading about Monet's fight through depression and cataracts to paint some of his best work at 70 and beyond is nothing short of a kick in the pants to anyone who thinks her life is over. There is still work to be done, still opportunity for greatness. Truly inspiring. Monet painted, following his vision for a room wrapped in huge paintings of his pond and water lilies, as World War I raged around him, devastating great swaths of France. Monet refused to evacuate to safety, he refused to stop his work. Like Hokusai who continued to make art up until the year before he died at age 88, Monet produced magnificent work during the final years of his life. Ross King is a favorite writer. He gets the facts right and makes interesting observations and connections. King's "Judgement of Paris" is my favorite. This is a good companion to that book.

The book is a detailed description of Monet's life and is perfect for anyone who loves to paint and create art. It gives details of his ongoing love of painting, his friendships, his loves. Anyone who loves to paint will find this a great read!! Lots of great details!!! Beautifully written.....

King writes about the last years of the life on Claude Monet (1840-1926). I know very little about Monet and his paintings. All my education has been in the area of science. Now that I am older and retired, I am attempting to expand my knowledge. As a World War One history buff, I was most interested in the part about World War One in France. I learned a different viewpoint of the effects of the War. I found how various artists helped during the war from paintings of battles to the discovery of camouflage use by Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola. Artists were employed to paint camouflage netting and canvas, as well as designing new camouflage uniforms for the French Army. The world went through a significant social change after the War and the book provides a glimpse into the effect on Monet. I found the friendship with Georges Clemenceau interesting. The book is well written. It was written so that a person that has no knowledge of art could understand. I read this as an e-book downloaded from Amazon to my Kindle app on my iPad. The book is 416 pages. It was published in 2016.

Full disclosure: I am an unrepentant fan of Monet, from his early experiments with light through the awe-inspiring panorama exhibited in l'Orangerie whose conception and implementation motivate this book. The Water-Lily project occupied much of the last decade-plus of Monet's life, hence was inevitably influenced by much that Monet experienced throughout this period: the personal tragedies of deaths in his family; the grand tragedy of World War I; the impact both of Monet's rather difficult personality and of his life on a pedestal during this period. But the story did not end even with Monet's death. The Water Lily exhibit that millions now queue up for had yet to endure the major "anti-Impressionism" art movement of the early-to-mid 20th century, until the post-World War II revival of appreciation of Monet and his oeuvre. I understand fully how many readers will chafe at King's detailed descriptions of the history that impacted Monet and of the personalities (mainly Clemenceau) that so influenced him, but I believe that one cannot fully understand the man and his mission without appreciating the magnitudes as well as the natures of these external influences. The book develops its portrait of Monet with sober sympathy: a difficult yet dedicated genius. As a final note, I really appreciated King's discussion in the Epilogue, of the artistic details in the "Water Lilies".

What an eye-opening insightful look at Monet and his life and how the Grande Decoration (the Water Lily panels now hanging in L'Orangerie) happened. It really hit home in thinking about the artist and their personal life, and the outside influences such as friends and war and weather. It truly was a pleasure reading Mad Enchantment!! I'm sure that I will return to it again and again as I continue to learn more about Claude Monet.