What are you trying to say, Claude Monet?
By that time, he was prosperous enough to buy a farm estate at Giverny, located a train-ride trip from Paris. Here’s a picture of him in his eighties, seated on a bench near the pond on the estate where he painted his masterwork series of water-lily panoramas.

I don’t think he ever retired. But he did put on a new suit when the photographer came to visit him at his country estate. The suit, the hat, and the boots look new, his beard freshly barbered. He’s about to say something. What is it he wants to tell you?
I first saw this photo in the gift shop at Giverny. It’s a wall-sized blowup. I see him all dressed up in his three-piece suit – very probably, his best – waiting for the photographer. He has a straw hat to shade his eyes. He usually wore one with his bib overalls and old long-sleeved shirt when he painted. Perhaps this is a new one. You can almost see the gold-rimmed spectacles staring out beneath the brim. And the long beard was a trademark, dating from back in the day when it wasn’t all white.
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I could imagine his saying to me, “Well, let’s get on with it.” Or, “What are you waiting for?”
I have a framed copy of it on the wall in my bathroom.
He asks me those questions every morning.

Here’s how he saw the pond behind him in the photo.

And what do you think this guy wants to say?
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