Object Image

Water Lilies (Agapanthus)

Monet spent the last thirty years of his life painting the lily pond at his home in Giverny, a small town on the river Seine, just north of Paris. While his initial exploration of the water lily theme (1902-8) produced smaller works more descriptive of a garden setting, the later paintings focus on the water's shimmering surface, indicating the surrounding trees and lush bank only through reflections. Here reflection and reality merge in strokes of blue, violet, and green. Fronds of water plants sway underwater and passing clouds are reflected above. By 1915 Monet had conceived a plan, called his Grande Décoration, for arranging a series of monumental water lily paintings in an oval room, thus ...
c. 1915-26
Oil on canvas
201.3 x 425.6cm
1960.81
Image and text: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2024

Where you'll find this

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Permanent collection