Aha

When looking at art, "aha moments" happen to others, I thought... until I was struck by one of these a few months ago at the Musée de l'Orangerie during my last trip to Paris. I went to see the temporary exhibition Dada Africa, Non-Western Sources and Influences, and by habit, walked through the two elliptical rooms full of tourists making selfies with Monet's Water Lilies in the background.
Even though I visited the permanent collections at numerous occasions, I had the feeling of looking at Monet's murals for the first time. Surrounded by the quiet water sometimes shivering, sometimes dazzling under a ray of sun, and the water lilies floating among willow branches caressing the pond, relishing the blues, greens, pinks, yellows, it was like viewing a poem in colors. I walked along the paintings, back and forth, "in" and "out". Immersed in the monumental compositions, filled with awe, I forgot tourists and time. Contemplating nature distilled by the painter, I reached a calming, deep spiritual state.
Each experience is different and mine was nothing compared to Stendhal's ecstasy while visiting Santa Croce: " I had reached that point of emotion where the heavenly sensations of the fine arts meet passionate feelings. As I emerged from Santa Croce, I had palpitations...., the life went out of me and I walked in fear of falling."
At another level, I realized that several chapters of art history were in front of my eyes at once. I could see a figurative impressionistic scenery from afar and closer, an abstract landscape. Of course, this is not news for Monet's connoisseurs. But it was the first time I became acutely aware of this through my encounter with his work.
How could I have missed so much all these years? Jaded by too many reproductions of the Water Lilies on umbrellas, coffee mugs, calendars, ..., too many poorly displayed Nympheas in museums, I had given up on seeing them. It took that special day to discover, in Monet's words, the "illusion of an endless whole, of a wave with no horizon and no shore".

photographs by the author

"Water Lilies" (details) at the Musée de l'Orangerie