PARIS.- For their first immersive project in virtual reality since the creation of a digital department, the Musée d’Orsay and Musée de l’Orangerie present a 360° experience in VR associated with the Monet – Clemenceau focus. This film exploring the genesis of Monet’s final work has been produced in partnership with ARTE, Lucid Realities and Camera Lucida productions.

This project was chosen by HTC as part of the Vive Arts programme, which assists the world’s leading Museums in developing high quality immersive experiences.

This project has also been designated a “Centenary” project, certified by the First World War Centenary Group.

“Beyond painting and gardening, I’m good for nothing…” Claude Monet used to say. Even if these words make us smile today, the Water Lilies cycle, almost 250 paintings that the Impressionist painter produced from life, in his garden in Giverny, is admirable proof that he was in fact not only a genius in painting, but also an excellent observer of nature and the garden that he had created at his home in Giverny. It was here, for almost 30 years until his death, that he returned again and again to paint this theme to the rhythm of the seasons, right up to these gigantic decorative panels now mounted on the walls of the Musée de l’Orangerie and promised to France as a symbol of victory, through the intermediary of a friend from his youth, Georges Clemenceau, on 12 November 1918, one hundred years ago.

Through a 360° video on the Arte platforms, and an interactive experience in virtual reality, presented at the Musée de l’Orangerie for this commemoration, and available to download, Claude Monet, l’obsession des Nymphéas [Claude Monet, the Water Lily obsession] takes you to the locations where this work was produced, and immerses you in the process of painting this unique piece.

The VR experience Claude Monet, the Water Lily obsession, will be presented at a preview and will then be available for a further 4 months at the Musée de l’Orangerie, from 12 November 2018, as part of the Monet – Clemenceau collection focus (14 November 2018 – 11 March 2019).

“When you go out painting try to forget what objects you have before you – a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think: here is a little blue square, some pink, an oval of green, a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact colour and shape, until it gives you your own naive impression of the scene before you.” --Claude Monet