Description

The Japanese Bridge immerses us in the physical experience of being in the garden. With the bands of the blue bridge suspended like a canopy near the top of the canvas and no sky to be seen, the water and billowing foliage fill the visual field, immersing the viewer in the verdant, brightly colored waterscape. 

From out of this despair, Monet painted his exquisite canvases based on his water lily pond and the wooden Japanese bridge that he had constructed in 1895 (Monet had long been an admirer of Japanese woodcuts and design). He first painted his water lilies in 1897, but in 1899 he produced a series of 18 contemplative works of the lilies and the bridge, each demonstrating his unsurpassed skills as a colorist. Held at the Princeton University Art Museum.