Nymphaea imago est Exhibition

Introduction

To mark the bicentenary of the birth of photography and the centenary of the death of the painter Claude Monet, the gallery presents a reflection featuring its own artists, visual artists and photographers: what image do we have today of the Water Lilies, which were more than just a subject for the painter?

What can be conveyed through this iconic image of modern painting?

Over three decades, Monet painted nearly 300 water-lily paintings; beyond mere obsession, this represents a genuine reflection on the very nature of the painter’s gesture and the traces of lived experience that shaped the artist throughout those years. This culminated in the intense series begun at the outbreak of the 1914 war.

From its very beginnings, photography has clashed with painting – which was seen as a threat – to become the medium it is today. Painting, for its part, remains very much present. These two techniques therefore coexist, intersect, sometimes merge, and respond to one another.

How can photography today appropriate the image of a flower which, having traversed both space (the water lily is native to China) and time, challenges the painter’s deepest motivations for depicting a mental space—his own—beyond a mere vision inspired by nature, which he created from scratch in Giverny? How does one move from image to icon?

Through a selection of previously unseen works, the gallery offers a sensory journey in which the water lily reveals something more than a mere image of a flower.

Some recommendations

Must-see:

https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/128087-000-A/monet-et-les-nympheas-l-eternite-retrouvee/

Recommended reading:

https://www.musee-orangerie.fr/fr/collection/les-nympheas-de-claude-monet/histoire-du-cycle-des-nympheas

Le syndrome de l’Orangerie de Grégoire Bouillier(éditions Flammarion)

© Jean-Christophe Ballot, En surface ?, triptych 1.50 m × 62 cm, chromogenic RC print mounted on aluminium, 2005, 9 copies, numbered and signed

©Frédérique Bouet, L'heure bleue 1, 2026, photographic print using the subligraphy process, 60 cm × 35 cm. Edition no. 1/12, signed

©Philippe du Crest, Over the Rainbow series, 2026, numbered and signed photographic print

©Violaine Laveaux, print Y from the series *Jardin des Établissements La-tour-Marliac*, 2005/2006–2026. Black-and-white Epson print on Hahnemühle Ultra Smooth 305g paper, limited edition of 6 signed prints

©Tony Soulié, Nymphée 11, 2026, photo-painting, one-of-a-kind signed piece

Practical information

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