The painter's choice of a pictorial vantage point creates the apparent symmetry of the bridge and the woven flower garlands. The point of the painting is not that such symmetry literally exists in nature, but that in the impression of the painter, such symmetry was evident to his eyes, at a particular moment in time and in his life.

This painting would be especially useful to teach young children how to create meaningful pictures out of common, every day images. The teacher could point out to the students that the painting is of Monet's garden, something that he saw everyday, and painted many times. Monet painted many paintings water lilies, but every picture was different, because the French artist brought a different perspective to the work of art, during different times of his life.

Asking students to name different everyday things that look different at different times of the year,...
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