Claude Monet - The Water Lilies - The Clouds - Google Art Project

Claude Monet - The Water Lilies - Setting Sun - Google Art Project

Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond

''Water Lilies'' (or ''Nymphéas'', ) is a

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

of approximately 250 oil paintings by French

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

(1840–1926). The paintings depict his

flower garden A flower garden or floral garden is any garden or part of a garden where plants that flower are grown and displayed. This normally refers mostly to herbaceous plants, rather than flowering woody plants, which dominate in the shrubbery and wo ...

at his home in

Giverny Giverny () is a commune in the northern French department of Eure.Commune de Giverny (27285) ...

, and were the main focus of his artistic production during the last thirty years of his life. Many of the works were painted while Monet suffered from

cataracts A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble wi ...

."Monet, Claude."

Grove Art Online ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...

Background

Monet's long-standing preference for producing and exhibiting a series of paintings related by subject and perspective began in 1889, with at least ten paintings done at the ''Valley of the Creuse'', which were shown at the Galerie Georges Petit. Among his other famous series are his '' Haystacks''. During the 1920s, the state of France built a pair of oval rooms at the

Musée de l'Orangerie The Musée de l'Orangerie ( en, Orangery Museum) is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located in the west corner of the Tuileries Garden next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The museum is most famous as the ...

as a permanent home for eight water lily

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...

s by Monet. The exhibit opened to the public on 16 May 1927, a few months after Monet's death. Sixty water lily paintings from around the globe were assembled for a special exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie in 1999. The paintings are on prominent display at museums all over the world, including the

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works o ...

Musée Marmottan Monet Musée Marmottan Monet ( en, Marmottan Museum of Monet) is an art museum in Paris, France, dedicated to artist Claude Monet. The collection features over three hundred Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings by Claude Monet, including his 1 ...

, the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

in Paris, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

in New York, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mil ...

, the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, M ...

, the

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art. In 2007, ''Time'' maga ...

in Kansas City, Missouri, the

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburg ...

, the

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes,

The Toledo Museum of Art The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It houses a collection of more than 30,000 objects. With 45 galleries, it covers 280,000 square feet and is currently in th ...

the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egypt ...

, the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum beca ...

and the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

. In 2020, The

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

celebrated its 150-anniversary with some of Monet's Water Lilies paintings.

The paintings at auction

On 19 June 2007, one of Monet's ''Water Lily'' paintings sold for £18.5 million at a

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

auction in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

. On 24 June 2008 another of his ''Water Lily'' paintings, '' Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas'', sold for almost £41 million at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

, almost double the estimate of £18 to £24 million. In May 2010, it was announced that the 1906 ''Nymphéas'' work would be auctioned in

in June 2010. The painting had an estimated sale price of between £30 and £40 million. Giovanna Bertazzoni,

auction house director and head of impressionist and modern art, said, "Claude Monet's water-lily paintings are amongst the most recognised and celebrated works of the 20th Century and were hugely influential to many of the following generations of artists." The sale took place on 23 June 2010 at the auction house and the painting attracted bids of up to £29 million, but it ultimately failed to sell. On 6 May 2014, one of the ''Water Lilies'', ''Le Bassin aux Nymphéas'', was auctioned at Christie's, New York City for $27 million. 6 In June 2014, one of the Water Lilies, ''Nymphéas'', sold for $54 million USD at a Sotheby's auction in London. This piece was auctioned to an anonymous buyer, but the piece went on to be part of the exhibition "Painting the Modern Garden: From Monet to Matisse" at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, starting in 2015. The co-chairman of Sotheby's modern and impressionist art department, Helena Newman, claims that the result is at the top of the original estimated selling price. This price was between 34 and 51 million USD. While many of Monet’s masterpieces have sold, there are still an estimated 250 oil paintings from this series. The collection is widely popular, with many of these pieces residing in exhibits that have yet to go to auction. The paintings have been catalogued by

Daniel Wildenstein Daniel Leopold Wildenstein (11 September 1917 – 23 October 2001) was a French art dealer, historian and owner-breeder of thoroughbred race horses. He was the third member of the family to preside over Wildenstein & Co., one of the most succe ...

in his Monet: Catalogue Raisonné.

Gallery

File:Le bassin aux nymphéas - Claude Monet.jpg, '' Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas'', 1919, private collection File:WLA metmuseum Water Lilies by Claude Monet.jpg, ''Water Lilies,'' 1919,

, New York City File:Claude Monet Nympheas 1915 Musee Marmottan Paris.jpg, ''Nymphéas,'' 1915,

File:Claude Monet - Nymphéas (Waterlilies) - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Nymphéas (Waterlilies)'', 1914–17,

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

File:Monet2.jpg, Closeup of Water lily pond, one of 18 views of the pond, 1899,

Boston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

List of Water Lily paintings

Notes

External links

Claude Monet, Ministère de la culture et de la communication

Claude Monet, Joconde, Portail des collections des musées de France

''Water Lilies'' at the Portland Art Museum

''Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism''
exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on these works {{Authority control (arts) Series of paintings by Claude Monet Paintings by Claude Monet Paintings in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Paintings in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) Paintings in the collection of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna 1890s paintings 1900s paintings 1910s paintings 1920s paintings Water in art Paintings in the collection of the Musée de l'Orangerie Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Paintings in the collection of the Musée Marmottan Monet Bridges in art

Background

The paintings at auction

Gallery

List of Water Lily paintings

See also

Notes

External links