Water Lilies by Claude Monet

The Musée Marmottan Monet has a large selection of the Water Lilies paintings from the series created by Claude Monet.

At the beginning of the 1900s, Monet created his most extensive series of paintings based on his water lily pond in his garden at Giverny, France.

Monet first rented a house and gardens in Giverny in 1883. As Monet’s fortunes improved with his increasing success, his painting sales, Monet was able to buy the house, the surrounding buildings, and the land for his gardens in 1890.

Monet’s family help to develop the gardens and Monet built a greenhouse and a second studio. As Monet’s art sales grew, his garden grew and evolved.

In 1893 Monet purchased additional land with a water meadow and began a vast landscaping project, which included lily ponds. Claude Monet was the garden architect and eventually hired seven gardeners to help him.

Water Lilies

Title: Water Lilies
French: Nymphéas 1915
Artist: Claude Monet
Year: 1915
Medium: Height: 130 cm (51.1 ″); Width: 153 cm (60.2 ″)
Accession No. 6085
Museum: Musée Marmottan Monet

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Water Lilies (1915)

Monet worked on easel tables of different formats. Square, round and rectangular in which he captured the mirror of the water under different lighting effects.

To accentuate the effect, he removes all references of the boundaries of the pond. In the mirror of the water, we can see weeping willows, flowers, and plants all perceived reflections with the dynamic clouds in the sky.

Giverny sits on the “right bank” of the River Seine, where the river Epte meets the Seine. The village lies 80 km (50 mi) from Paris. It is famous as the location of Claude Monet’s garden and home.

Water Lilies

Title: Water Lilies
French: Nymphéas 1915
Artist: Claude Monet
Year: 1915
Medium: Height: 130 cm (51.1 ″); Width: 153 cm (60.2 ″)
Accession No. 6085
Museum: Musée Marmottan Monet

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The Water Lily Pond

After Claude Monet’s death, his extensive collection remained in Giverny under the protection of his son Michael. During World War II (1939 -1945), some of his paintings were damaged by war shrapnel as Giverny was in a war zone.

This painting was damaged by the war and lost about 80 centimeters from the right side.

The Water Lily Pond

Title: The Water Lily Pond
French: Nymphéas et Agapanthes
Artist: Claude Monet
Year: 1910s
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: Height: 130 cm (51.1 ″); Width: 120 cm (47.2 ″)
Accession No. 5098
Museum: Musée Marmottan Monet

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Water Lilies, Evening Effect (1897)

Water Lilies, Evening Effect by Claude Monet shows Monet’s love affair with his water lily pond started in the late 1800s soon after he acquired the property for his extensive gardens.

Claude Monet noticed the village of Giverny while looking out of a train window.

Monet made up his mind to move there and rented a house and the area surrounding it. Some of his most famous paintings were of his garden in Giverny.

The water garden, formed by a tributary to the Epte, with the Japanese bridge, the pond with the water lilies, the wisterias, and azaleas.

Water Lilies, Evening Effect

Title: Water Lilies, Evening Effect
Artist: Claude Monet
Year: 1897
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: Height: 73 cm (28.7 ″); Width: 100 cm (39.3 ″)
Accession No. 5167 (inv. 5167)
Museum: Musée Marmottan Monet

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Nymphéas by Claude Monet, demonstrates how the water lilies are eventually reduced to simple touches of color to contrast the floating world of weeping willow and other tree reflections in the pond filled with sky blue reflections.

Claude Monet, left by his son his property at Giverny. His son left the property to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1966.

The Museum at Giverny opened to public visit in 1980 after completion of large-scale restoration work.

The Nymphea’s studio was restored, and Monet’s collection of Japanese woodblock prints was displayed in the manner chosen by the master himself; the gardens were replanted as they once were.

The house has become a popular tourist attraction.

Nymphéas

Title: Water Lilies
French: Nymphéas
Artist: Claude Monet
Year: 1903
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: Height: 73 cm (28.7 ″); Width: 92 cm (36.2 ″)
Accession No. 5163
Museum: Musée Marmottan Monet

Claude Monet

Oscar-Claude Monet was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the term “Impressionism” is derived from the title of his painting “Soleil Levant” or “Impression, Sunrise,” which was exhibited in 1874.

Monet adopted a method of art in which he painted the same scene many times to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons.

Monet is known for having produced a series of paintings, in which all the versions consist of the same subject and perspective.

Examples include his series of the “Valley of the Creuse” series and his famous series of “Haystacks” and “Water Lilies” paintings.

From 1883 Monet lived in Giverny, where at his home, he developed a garden landscape that included the lily ponds that would become the subjects of his best-known works.

In 1899 he began painting the water lilies, firstly with a Japanese bridge as a central feature, and later in the series of large-scale paintings, with the water lilies as the main feature. This series occupied him for the last 20 years of his life.

“Water Lilies” by Claude Monet

Claude Monet

Name: Oscar-Claude Monet
Born: 1840 – Paris, France
Died: 1926 (aged 86) – Giverny, France
Nationality: French
Movement: Impressionism
Notable works:
- Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond
- Farmyard in Normandy
- The Basin at Argenteuil
- A Cart on the Snowy Road at Honfleur
- Water Lilies, (National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo)
- Camille Monet on a Bench
- The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog) – (MET)
- “Houses of Parliament, London” (Art Institute of Chicago)
- “The Houses of Parliament, Sunset” (National Gallery of Art, DC)
- London, Houses of Parliament. The Sun Shining through the Fog
- “Seagulls, the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament” (Pushkin Museum)
- Haystacks at Scottish National Gallery
- Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn) at Art Institute of Chicago
- Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer) at Art Institute of Chicago
- “Meules, milieu du jour” (National Gallery of Australia)
- “Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning” (Getty Museum)
- Garden at Sainte-Adresse
- Poppy Field in a Hollow near Giverny
- The Gare St-Lazare (The National Gallery, London)
- “La Gare Saint-Lazare” (Musée d’Orsay)
- “Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare” by Claude Monet (Art Institute of Chicago)
- Le Pont de Argenteuil (The Argenteuil Bridge)
- Impression, Sunrise
- Japanese Bridge Paintings by Claude Monet – Musée Marmottan Monet
- Water Lilies by Claude Monet – Musée Marmottan Monet
- Gardens at Giverny Paintings by Claude Monet – Musée Marmottan Monet

Monet painting in his garden in Giverny, France

Paris, France: Monet’s Dreamy Water Lilies

Highlights of the Musée Marmottan Monet

Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet
Japanese Bridge Paintings by Claude Monet – Musée Marmottan Monet
Water Lilies by Claude Monet – Musée Marmottan Monet
Gardens at Giverny Paintings by Claude Monet – Musée Marmottan Monet

MONET- “Water-Lilies” – Nympheas by Claude Monet

A Tour of Paris Museums and Historic Sites

The Louvre
Musée National du Moyen Age – Thermes De Cluny (National Museum of Medieval Art)
Musée d’Orsay
Musée Rodin
Musée Carnavalet
National Archaeological Museum, France
Les Invalides
Musée Marmottan Monet