{"product_id":"mad-enchantment-claude-monet-and-the-painting-of-the-water-lilies-9781632860132","title":"Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom bestselling author Ross King  a brilliant portrait of the legendary artist and the story of his most memorable achievement.  Claude Monet is perhaps the worlds most beloved artist  and among all his creations  the paintings of the water lilies in his garden at Giverny are most famous. Monet intended the water lilies 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 in trying to capture 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.  Mad Enchantment tells the full story behind the creation of the Water Lilies  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 seventy-three  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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45275776974901,"sku":"ByrdShop_1632860139","price":63.02,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781632860132.jpg?v=1780514246","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/mad-enchantment-claude-monet-and-the-painting-of-the-water-lilies-9781632860132","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}