Professor Butter Beard and Monet’s “Yellow Irises”
“The yellow glistens.
It glistens with various yellows,
Citrons, oranges and greens
Flowering over the skin.”
― Wallace Stevens, American modernist poet
Every season has its own yellow. Winter yellow is a mixture of gold, silver and smokey satin. Spring bursts forth with a triumphant sun-soaked daffodil yellow. Summer glows with a sassy sunflower and perky sweet corn yellow. And autumn enters like a gentleman dressed in golden tweeds and a yellow silk cravat. But no matter the season, when I dream of yellow, I dream of getting lost in a field of Monet’s yellow irises.
Claude Monet's subject range gracefully narrowed to the contents of his personal gardens after his move to Giverny and today’s offering of “Yellow Irises” is an extremely decorative example of his still lifes during this period. The curator of the National Museum of Western Art writes that this work exudes a Japanese sensibility with its tall picture plane reminiscent of Japanese wall panel paintings, and the “spatial ambiguity of the ascending, undulating lines produce a decidedly decorative effect.” For me, the painting perfectly captures the moment your eyes first open after being awakened from a summer nap by the buzzing of the bees dancing among the swaying flowers.
By the late nineteenth century, horticulturists had created almost 200 different varieties of iris. The flowers had originated in Japan and were featured in the Japanese prints Monet so admired. It is known he owned a print of “Irises” by the Japanese artist Hokusai and he would also have been familiar with the paintings of irises that Van Gogh made in the year before his death in 1890. Monet cultivated many different varieties of iris within his domain, and in 1913 his head gardener even published an article in a horticultural magazine detailing the different types that grew in the garden, including one that was named “Mme Claude Monet,” after Monet’s wife.
Irises were planted beneath the trees in the “Clos Normand” flower garden in front of Monet’s house and around the banks and along the paths of his infamous water-lily pond. According to guests, the irises made an impressive sight. Georges Truffaut, a great horticultural expert who visited Giverny, wrote: “The edges of the pond are thickly covered with irises of every kind. In the spring there are Iris sibirica and Virginian irises with their long petals and velvety texture; later on, the Japanese irises and the Kaempferi irises grow here in quantity.”
This painting is one of approximately twenty views of irises in the water garden that Monet painted between 1914 and 1917. The pictures were painted in the large studio Monet had built at Giverny in order to work on huge canvases of his water garden. “Yellow Irises” was rapidly executed by Monet. He applied thick yellows, blues and greens using bold, even crude strokes. There are those that think these effects may have been partly the result of the double cataracts which were altering his vision by this date. I can fully appreciate this understanding, but my soul relates to Monet’s own interpretation: “I would like to paint the way a bird sings.”
“When you go out to paint,” Monet wrote, “try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape.” With this in mind, I let the spirit of yellow dance in my culinary palette, adding the essence of my summer basil, and the purr of local honey. The result is a golden Madeleine, perfect with a glass of chilled green tea as you wake from a dream surrounded by swaying yellow irises.
Meyer Lemon and Fresh Basil Madeleines
32 Madeleines – using two Madeleine baking trays
Cake Batter:
14 Tbsp unsalted butter – plus 3 Tbsp more to prep the madeleine trays
3 Tbsp local honey
4 large eggs
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
The zest of three lemons
¼ cup fresh basil leaves
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour – plus more to dust the madeleine trays
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp kosher salt
Glaze:
The juice of three lemons (the same ones you zested for the batter)
6 Tbsp granulated sugar
1) Place the 14 Tbsp of butter and 3 Tbsp of honey in a small saucepan over low heat until the butter has melted. Stir to combine, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. (Alternatively, I brown the butter, pour it into a glass measuring cup and then stir in the honey)
2) Whisk together the flour, baking powder, ground ginger and salt.
3) Place the eggs, sugar, vanilla paste, lemon zest and basil leaves in a food processor and process until smooth and combined. Add the flour mixture and pulse a few times to combine. Pour in the cooled butter/honey and pulse again to combine. Pour the batter into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for one hour.
4) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt the remaining 3 Tbsp of butter and use to brush the madeleines trays. Then dust the trays with all-purpose flour (like prepping a cake pan).
5) Portion the batter into the individual madeleine wells - 2/3 full. Place one tray in the oven and immediately turn down the oven to 375 degrees. Bake for roughly 10 minutes until the “humps” are just solid. Remove from the oven and let sit 3 minutes before turning the cakes out onto a cooling rack. Reheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake the second tray.
6) While the madeleines bake, stir together the lemon juice and the 6 Tbsp granulated sugar. While the madeleines are still warm, brush the ridged side with the glaze until they soak in no more.
