Part biography, part history, part art, all fascinating. Basically the story of Monet from the beginning of the Great War to his death in 1926, focusing on his last great work. But so much detail - a portrait of France in the throes of war that I'd never encountered . Highly recommended for both history and art buffs. A good selection of plates and photos, too, with a wonderful cover/dust jacket. ( )

After hearing a reading by the author I had high expectations of this book, but the dull writing style took away from the amazing life of Monet.The story got repetitive and uninspired. Despite the title, only about an 1/8 of the story is about the waterlilies.
Ross King did do decent reseach, so I won't entirely pan it. ( )

I will never look at these last painting of Monet the same way again. Especially the ones done of the willows or the rose arbor. Once I learned what was going on in Monet's life and his feelings about what was happening to France during WWI and how that affected his painting all the way from the subject matter he choose to the colors and time of day that he choose to depict on canvas. The violence around him is seriously a part of these paintings that makes them the antithesis of an anti-depressant, a sobriquet that he was often given. His twisted drooping willows are a symbol of a country and a man bowed but not giving up and his huge last paintings that were donated to the French government are very much a part of WWI.

This was an excellent book about the last great burst of creativity from the master of Impressionism. ( )

As much as we imagine Monet and his tranquil home, Giverny, as a spot secluded in place and time, it wasn't. Monet was subject to the forces around him, while working on some of his most famous art, the Water Lilies series.

Mad Enchantment is a deeply researched, well-written biography of Claude Monet. It starts in the Belle Époque, a time of peace just before World War I. Author Ross King introduces us to Monet, as well as his family and companions. We learn about his benefactors, his friends, and his critics.

King includes charming personal details about the artist, "Monet loved birds and animals, even leaving the windows of his dining room open so the sparrows could help themselves to bread crumbs from the table."

We learn about the property in Giverney, as well as how the gardens inspired Monet's art as he entered his 70s.

As a former marketing professional, I was surprised to learn about Money's astute branding. Says King, "Monet’s use of this new term, “Grande Décoration,” which he pointedly capitalized, was intended to pique the interest of Koechlin, a respected art historian and administrator whose specialty happened to be the decorative arts."

All that said, I just didn't find the book riveting enough to read past the 30% mark. The writing is fairly dry, and focuses on the historical context of Monet's life rather than on the man himself.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.










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I once had the opportunity to purchase an original Monet, and by "opportunity", I mean 20 some years ago my wife and I went into a gallery that had one for $14,000. An amount we did not have back then.

I got an advance look at this from NetGalley. This had the potential to be quite dry, but Mr. King did a very good job with the narrative. Incredibly researched and sourced, the later/last years of Monet and his challenges/triumphs with his lilies are laid out in beautiful detail. I have no reference frame to compare, as I've never read a bio of Monet, so I'll simply acknowledge that this appears quite thorough and unvarnished. I especially appreciated King's presentation of events for which he had no confirmation: "Clemenceau would have been conducted to a room he knew well, ..." Unlike hacks like Bill O'Reilly and his semi-ghost who state conjecture as fact, King does no such thing. And speaking of Clemenceau, the Tiger plays a prominent role in this biography - as one would expect if one knew his friendship with Monet.

I like Monet well enough, and though I have have a much deeper exposure to the art world in recent years, I admit I still have a hard time understanding

"Monet paints in a strange language", [a] reviewer had claimed in 1883, "whose secrets, together with a few initiates, he alone possesses."

Or, on Monet changing landmarks:

Faithfully depicting architectural features was less important to him than creating a striking composition."

I have an extremely hard time buying interpretations and inferences unless they are from the conformed words of the actual artist, but King has a plethora of references of the master's own words with respect to his feelings on color and composition and the subject at hand. (Color was a huge source of frustrations in Monet's cataract struggles.)

Bottom line, this is a fascinating story of perhaps the greatest Impressionist artist.

A couple of notes on the book: the review text had no index, or list of illustrations. Nor did it have any photos of the subject (lilies) - I don't know if permissions had not yet been obtained or there is no intent to include them. The photos in the galley (I use that term given the source - NetGalley) were gray-scale. For a book on Monet's water lilies, color would seem to be essential. ( )