On 5 December 2026, it will be exactly one hundred years since Claude Monet died at his home in Giverny. The centenary is being commemorated in several places across Paris, with the main event at the Musée de l'Orangerie, which opens the major exhibition Monet et le temps – Monet and Time – on 30 September 2026. It’s a fitting theme, since few artists have shaped the way we see light and nature as he did. If you’ve been thinking about hanging a Monet poster at home, the anniversary year is a great opportunity to understand what the paintings are really about – not just beautiful water lilies, but a lifelong quest to capture the fleeting moment.
Quick facts: 2026 marks the centenary of Claude Monet’s death (5 December 1926). The Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris is showing Monet et le temps from 30 September 2026 to 29 March 2027, with around forty paintings on loan, primarily from the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée Marmottan Monet, with a particular focus on the water lilies – Les Nymphéas.
What’s happening in 2026 – the centenary and the Orangerie’s major Monet exhibition
The Orangerie is no arbitrary choice for a Monet anniversary. It is home to his monumental water lily paintings, Les Nymphéas, which are permanently displayed in two oval rooms that Monet helped plan as a gift to the French state after the First World War. Holding the centenary exhibition here brings things full circle: the works he donated as a gesture of peace now meet a survey of his entire career.
The exhibition Monet et le temps is built around time itself. It traces how Monet captured the fast-paced, modern moment during his Impressionist years, how he later painted the same subjects over and over in series to capture the changing light, and finally how the water lilies became an attempt to paint duration itself. At the same time, the Musée d'Orsay is showing a parallel exhibition about Monet and the landscape, making Paris a hub for anyone who wants to see his art during the anniversary year.
The celebrations of Monet are unprecedented for a reason. It was his 1874 painting Impression, soleil levant – now at the Musée Marmottan Monet – that gave Impressionism its name, after a critic derisively called it unfinished and merely an “impression.” The movement he became the figurehead of broke with academic painting by working outdoors, quickly and directly, to capture the light before it changed. What was once seen as careless and provocative is now one of the most beloved periods in art history, and Monet is its most popular name.
From Giverny to the Orangerie – the Water Lilies that became his life’s work
In 1883, Monet moved to Giverny, northwest of Paris, and the garden there eventually became his most important subject. He had a pond dug, built a Japanese bridge, and planted water lilies – and then painted the same water surface for twenty years. What looks like an idyll was actually a laboratory: Monet studied how the sky was reflected in the water, how the light changed everything from morning to evening, and how the surface dissolved into pure color.
The Water Lilies were the culmination of a working method Monet had refined over decades. During the 1890s, he painted one series after another of the same subjects: haystacks in the fields, rows of poplars along the river, and the façade of Rouen Cathedral, depicted in everything from gray morning mist to glowing afternoon sunshine. The idea was simple but radical – the subject matters less than the light falling on it. When he then turned his gaze to his own pond, he had everything he needed within walking distance of his studio, and could return to the same water surface year after year.
"The Water Lilies are not a garden – they are Monet’s attempt to paint time itself, moment by moment, until the subject almost dissolves into light."
The garden in Giverny was also an expression of Monet’s fascination with Japan. He collected Japanese woodblock prints and let their aesthetic shape both the pond with its curved bridge and the way he cropped his subjects. Anyone who thinks a water lily painting has something serene and almost meditative about it is right – there’s a clear thread from Japanese art to Monet’s reflections on water, and the calm, balanced composition is part of why these subjects work so well on a wall today. If you’d like to see how related floral and nature motifs work at home, we’ve gathered advice in our guide to botanical posters.
Monet’s Cataracts and the Color Explosion of His Later Years
One detail that is often overlooked: Monet’s eyesight deteriorated severely in his final years. He was diagnosed with cataracts and underwent surgery in 1923, after refusing surgery for a long time out of fear of losing his color perception. The clouding of the eye’s lens made the world appear more yellow and red to him than it really was, and several of the late Giverny paintings have a glowing, almost blazing palette that art historians partly attribute to his deteriorating eyesight.
It’s a reminder that the late water lilies aren’t soft and pastel-colored by chance. They are the result of an old man painting almost blind, from memory and feeling, and still pushing color further than ever before. These later, more dissolved works point ahead to the abstract art that would emerge decades later, and they are often the ones that feel most alive on a modern wall.
The late years in Giverny were also productive in an almost defiant way. Despite vision problems, old age and grief over his second wife, Monet kept working on the large water lily panels until the very end, often in a special studio built specifically for the enormous canvases. The works he left behind when he died in 1926 were so modern that it took later generations decades to fully understand them – only with the abstract expressionism of the 1950s did the late water lilies receive their due.
Tip: Want that calm, classic Monet feel? Choose a water lily or garden painting in cool blue-green tones. Looking for more warmth and movement? Seek out the late, glowing works in yellow and rust red – they bring more warmth to a room and can hold their own at a large size.
The connection to the home – how to bring Monet’s light into your space with a poster
Monet’s strength in a home is that his subjects are tranquil without being boring. They don’t clash with furniture or textiles, but they have enough depth to hold a room. A water lily painting or a garden scene therefore works almost anywhere: in a bedroom because the subject is peaceful, in a living room as a unifying focal image, and in a hallway or stairwell where you pass quickly and need something to catch your eye.
One thing that makes Monet especially easy to live with at home is that his palette comes in two temperatures. The early and classic subjects lean cool: mist, blue-green water, purple shadows and bright skies, tones that blend into light, pared-back rooms without taking over. The late Giverny paintings are warmer, with yellow, orange and rust red, and work better as a distinct pop of color in an otherwise neutral room. By choosing a temperature rather than just a subject, you can control exactly how much the artwork stands out.
There is also a seasonal dimension to Monet's paintings that makes them easy to live with for a long time. His motifs move through the entire year – spring greenery in Giverny, the summer water lily pond in full bloom, autumn's yellowing poplars, and winter's mist over the Seine. A home that changes character with the seasons can therefore almost always find a Monet motif that matches the light outside the window, which is one of the reasons his art has remained so popular for more than a century.
In our collection, you'll find his motifs in the collection of paintings and posters by Claude Monet, along with related styles among posters with floral motifs and nature motifs. If you're looking for more classics from art history, you'll find them gathered under artworks by famous artists. For a more in-depth look at his motifs and how they work room by room, see our Monet guide.
Motifs, rooms, and sizes – practical recommendations
The water lily motifs are best given room to breathe. They are wide, panoramic compositions, and at 50x70 cm or larger, they have the right sense of calm. Hang one centered above a sofa or bed, preferably in landscape orientation, so the width of the image echoes the furniture below. In a smaller room, 30x40 cm works well above a chest of drawers or in a reading nook. If you want to combine several Monet motifs, it works best to keep them in the same family – three garden scenes in the same size and frame, hung close together as a series.
Monet is a natural choice when it comes to color: the muted blue-green and purple tones fit into a Scandinavian home without shouting, while the warmer late-period motifs can lift an otherwise neutral room. A light wood frame or a slim black frame suits most of his paintings; a gold frame can feel right for the classic motifs if the rest of the room can handle a little more decoration. If you want to compare him with another giant from the same era, read our guide to Vincent van Gogh's motifs and interior design – two contemporaries who took color in completely different directions.
Frequently asked questions about Claude Monet and the anniversary year
A hundred years after his death, Monet is more alive than ever, and the centenary year 2026 is a wonderful opportunity to bring his light into your home. Explore our Monet posters and let a water lily or garden scene bring a quiet, timeless calm to your room.
Sources: Musée de l'Orangerie – Monet and Time and Musée d'Orsay – Monet, a Question of Landscape.