Guess the painting

This week’s question: Who is painting what occasion (above)? Answer next Sunday. Last week’s detail (below) showed barely a brushstroke from Monet’s magnificent Water Lilies, begun during the first world war in 1916. These strange floating visions – the large waxy flowers he grew in Giverny – are drifting on what appears almost to be nothing more than the light of the day. The limitless blue dissolves distance, depth, earth and sky, near and far. And the flowers, closeup, more or less vanish. A reminder, for now, that spring is almost here and summer not far away.