lilies and the sunlight intensifies each glowing color. Here 
indeed, Monet shows us "realities having the magic of a 
dream." 
Monet is pleased with our enthusiasm but makes little 
comment on his work. Yes, they are well on the way, he has 
been working on them for five years. To us most of them look 
finished. He talks of what he is going to do next winter ; he is 
so active, so quick in his movements, so quietly humorous and 
with such an intense interest in life. He regrets his eyes are 
not what they used to be. For twenty years he has not read 
a book or paper, he is read to always, so as to save his eyes for 
his work; he has never worn glasses. 
Arsene Alexandre says that Monet is "one of the greatest 
lovers of the ai?- that ever lived ... all things in the air 
serve him mainly as pretexts for rendering homage to their 
universal, their invisible king." And in these amazing and 
powerful presentations, we feel that the artist has indeed 
accomplished the seemingly impossible ! We almost see the 
air pulsing through those quivering leaves and hovering above 
those waxen petals. 
"Now," M. Andree remarks, "I know they would like to 
see the others." Everyone helps to turn about the rich dark 
paintings and behold in a trice we are in another atmosphere 
of shimmering light, of delicate interlacing trees above a rain- 
bow pool. So exquisite is the picture that our exclamations 
are hushed, and we silently drink in this wonderful beauty. 
Still another set and yet another is revealed to us, more effects 
of pale moonlight, of dancing sunbeams, of swaying reflections 
in that marvellous mirror of water. 
"But where can they go, these huge canvases, without a 
break?" 
"The gallery must be built for them," answers M. Andree, 
"with the entrance in the centre of the room." 
Since then I have heard that ' ' Claude Monet has presented 
twelve paintings of his series of Nympheas, or water lilies, to 
the French government. For some years he has "been working 
on canvases divided into groups, according to special effects 
of color and light playing on the themes of water lilies in their 
native pools. It is said he has between thirty and forty 
compositions and that the four groups selected include twelve 
of those best liked by the painter. The gift was suggested by 
George Clemenceau and some time during the national 
assembly plans will be submitted for an appropriation for the 
erection of a special gallery in the grounds of the Hotel Biron. 
It will be a rotunda, with the paintings hung closely in one row 
to give the impression of a single work. Monet will decorate 
the space above and the vestibule, and the visitor standing in 
the center of the rotunda will have the illusion of beiner on a 
