CLAUDE MONET – “Poplars au bord de l'Epte, view from the marshes” - 1891 – oil on canvas, 88- 93 cm. - USA, private collection

One of my favorite Impressionist pieces. His greatest lyrical achievement is reached in this strangely irresistible picture. The composition so beautifully resembles the beauty of a Japanese haiku, asymmetric and touching, while the poplars' leaves sing in red, purple, and finally in a blue that would make Yves Klein green with envy. It's Monet in his full bloom, the artist who once told his family that he wanted “to paint as the bird sings”.

CLAUDE MONET – “Meules (Haystacks, white frost)”- 1891 - oil on canvas - Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington

Between 1890 and 1891, Monet created a series of 15 canvases representing a group of haystacks in the outskirts of Giverny. Wassily Kandinsky had the opportunity of seeing one of these haystacks in an exhibition in Moscow in 1895, and he was impressed to the point of suggesting it as the first abstract painting in the history of Art: "And suddenly, for the first time, I saw a picture. It was a haystack [or rather, a grain stack], the catalogue informed me, but I could not recognize it (.) I realized that there the object of the picture was missed (.) What I had perfectly present was the unsuspected -and until then hidden- power of the palette".