Weeping Willow

Weeping Willow (1921) at the Musée d'Orsay belongs to the series of weeping willow paintings Monet made in 1918–22 as his own elegy for the dead of World War One. Monet identified deeply with the suffering of France during the war and spent much of the conflict years in his studio at Giverny. The weeping willow—traditional symbol of mourning—offered a form perfectly suited to expressing grief within his established vocabulary of garden and water. By 1921 his eyesight was severely compromised by cataracts, and these willow paintings show his technique pushed toward expressionistic intensity, color and gesture overriding careful observation.

Long, downward-sweeping strokes of greens, yellows, and warm ochre follow the willow's characteristic drooping form. The paint is applied with visible urgency and physical commitment. Background is indistinct—water and light—allowing the willow to dominate as a near-abstract cascade of color and gesture.