Title: Nymphéas
Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 73.3 x 101 cm
Date Created: circa 1897-1899
Description
“I have always loved sky and water, leaves and flowers. I found them in abundance in my little pool.” — Claude Monet
Nymphéas immerses the viewer in a shimmering aquatic realm, occupying a pivotal place in Monet’s life and art. Painted around 1897–1899, this canvas is among the earliest works to take his beloved water-lily pond at Giverny as its subject. From this point, the motif would dominate his output, inspiring over two hundred paintings created until his death. As one of only eight works in this rare inaugural series, Nymphéas establishes the defining concerns of these iconic works: the complex, shifting interplay of water, atmosphere and light that transformed the pond’s surface moment by moment, offering endless creative inspiration.
These first Nymphéas also mark the dawn of Monet’s vision for a grand decorative ensemble. In 1897, journalist Maurice Guillemot visited Giverny, where Monet showed him the pond and revealed he had begun painting “large panels” for a decoration. Monet described an enclosed circular room lined with images of water, dotted with plants to the horizon, with walls of transparent green and mauve reflecting open blossoms—a dreamlike harmony of vague, delicately nuanced tones. The present work was likely among those Guillemot saw, staking out this revolutionary pictorial territory.
Image Download
Image Dimensions: 3200 x 2332 pixels
Image Size: 3.19 MB
Image Format: JPG
Print Resolution: 300 dpi
Download Format: ZIP Archive
License: Public Domain, Free for Commercial Use
