{"product_id":"mad-enchantment-claude-monet-and-the-painting-of-the-water-lilies-9781632860125","title":"Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize Finalist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom bestselling author Ross King, a brilliant portrait of legendary artist Claude Monet and the story of his most memorable achievement, the water lilies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eClaude Monet is perhaps the world's most beloved artist, and among all his creations, the paintings of the water lilies in his garden at Giverny are most famous. Seeing them in museums around the world, viewers are transported by the power of Monet's brush into a peaceful world of harmonious nature. Monet himself intended them to provide \"an asylum of peaceful meditation.\" Yet, as Ross King reveals in his magisterial chronicle of both artist and masterpiece, these beautiful canvases belie the intense frustration Monet experienced at the difficulties of capturing the fugitive effects of light, water, and color. They also reflect the terrible personal torments Monet suffered in the last dozen years of his life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMad Enchantment\u003c\/i\u003e tells the full story behind the creation of the \u003ci\u003eWater Lilies\u003c\/i\u003e, as the horrors of World War I came ever closer to Paris and Giverny, and a new generation of younger artists, led by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, were challenging the achievements of Impressionism. By early 1914, French newspapers were reporting that Monet, by then 73 and one of the world's wealthiest, most celebrated painters, had retired his brushes. He had lost his beloved wife, Alice, and his eldest son, Jean. His famously acute vision--what Paul Cezanne called \"the most prodigious eye in the history of painting\"--was threatened by cataracts. And yet, despite ill health, self-doubt, and advancing age, Monet began painting again on a more ambitious scale than ever before. Linking great artistic achievement to the personal and historical dramas unfolding around it, Ross King presents the most intimate and revealing portrait of an iconic figure in world culture--from his lavish lifestyle and tempestuous personality to his close friendship with the fiery war leader Georges Clemenceau, who regarded the \u003ci\u003eWater Lilies\u003c\/i\u003e as one of the highest expressions of the human spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bloomsbury USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/06\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781632860125\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.70lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.50w x 1.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/15\/2016 pg. 72\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2016 pg. 34\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/01\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews Fall Preview\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/15\/2016 pg. 31\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Ross King","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36663522394268,"sku":"9781632860125","price":29.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_c909112f-49d6-4534-ad30-d50a3718067b.jpg?v=1603904499","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/mad-enchantment-claude-monet-and-the-painting-of-the-water-lilies-9781632860125","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}