A Monet Full of Tears

English speakers say "weeping willow" and picture the drooping branches. The shape. Nothing more. But the French name, saule pleureur, doesn't let you off the hook. Pleurer means to cry. The tree is crying. That's the whole name. Now look at this canvas again. Monet painted it in 1918 with his son at the front and artillery rumbling across the fields toward Giverny. His eyes were failing. The willow in French cemeteries had always been the tree of mourning. So the tree cries. Monet cries behind it. And the paint runs down in red streaks doing the same thing. 🛒 Get it here: https://art.ecoartl