Water Lilies

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Water Lilies

Artist Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)

Place of OriginGiverny, France

Dateabout 1922

DimensionsPainting: 79 × 84 in. (200.7 × 213.4 cm)
Framed: 81 3/4 × 86 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (207.6 × 220.3 × 6.4 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1981.54

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Study Room GP

Label TextPlants, water, and sky seem to merge in Claude Monet’s evocative painting of his lily pond at Giverny. The disorienting reflections, bold brushstrokes, and lack of horizon line or spatial depth make Water Lilies appear almost abstract. Painted about 1922, it belongs to a grand project that Monet had conceived as far back as 1897: “Imagine a circular room whose wall . . . would be entirely filled by a horizon of water spotted with [water lilies]… the calm and silence of the still water reflecting the flowering display; the tones are vague, deliciously nuanced, as delicate as a dream.” Monet began this ambitious project in 1914, finally completing it shortly before his death in 1926. Over those years he executed more than 60 paintings of his water garden, capturing the light conditions at different times of day and in different weather. Twenty-two of these large panels were installed in the Orangerie in the Tuileries Gardens, Paris, as a gift to France. Toledo’s painting was apparently a study for one of the three panels of the Orangerie composition Morning.Published ReferencesWestheim, P., Claude Monet, Landschaften, sechs mehrfarbige Wiedergaben, Zurich, 1953, last color plate.

Leymarie, J., Impressionism, Geneva, 1955, II, p. 119, repr. (color detail) (as about 1907).

Vollard, Ambroise, Souvenirs d'un marchand de Talbeaux, Paris, 1957, p. 8 (repr. detail).

Rouart, D. and Rey, J.D., Monet Nympheas, Paris, 1972, (English ed., New York, 1974), with catalogue raisonne by R. Maillard, unpaginated (as ca. 1916-1921).

Stuckey, C., "Blossoms and Blunders: Monet and the State, II," Art in America, Sept. 1979, p. 123, no. 38 (as (1921-1922).

Bowness, Alan, ed., Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, New York, 1965, repr. (col.) p. 145.

Hoog, Michel, Monet, Paris, 1978, no. 71, repr.

Leveque, J.J., Monet, Paris, 1980, p. 131, repr. detail.

Andrews, Peter, "A View of Toledo," Connoisseur, vol. 212, no. 849, Nov. 1982, p. 110, repr. (color detail).

"La chronique des arts," Gazette Des Beaux-Arts, vol. 101, no. 1370, Mar. 1983, repr. p. 41.

Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet: Bibgraphie et catalogue raisonne, Lausanne, 1985, vol. IV, no. 1804, p. 258, repr.

Spate, Virginia, Claude Monet: Life and Work, New York, 1992, fig. 281, p. 273 [as yellow and mauve nympheas, Kunstmuseum, Zurich].

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 162, repr. (col.).

"Claude Monet, 1840-1926," Art A Facts, vol. 2, no. 1, Aug/Sept 1998, repr. (col.) cover.

Wildenstein, Daniel, Monet, or the Triumph of Impressionism, Cologne, 1996, vol. IV, no. 1804, pp. 852-853, repr. p. 851 (col.).

Bumpus, Judith, "The Late Show," RA [Royal Academy] Magazine, no. 61, Winter 1998, repr. (col.) pp. 38-39, and (col. det.) on cover.

Stanley, Jerome, Historic Parallels in the Arts: Selected Studies A.D. 800-1985, Dubuque, Iowa, 1995, pp. 185, 191, fig. 19.1, p. 185.

"Monet au XXe siecle: le chant du cygne de l'impressionisme," L'Estampille/l'Object d'Art, no. 333, Feb. 1999, p. 36, fig. 9 (col.).

Southgate, M. Therese, "The Cover," JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 286, no. 7, Aug. 15, 2001, p. 764, repr. (col.), and on cover (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 41, repr. (col.).

Claude Monét (1840-1926): a Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff, New York, Wildenstein, 2007, p. 141.

Rey, Jean Dominique and Denis Rouart, Monet, les nympheas l'integalite, Paris, Flammarion, 2008, repr. p. 135 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 273, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 41, repr. (col.)

Exhibition HistoryZurich, Kunsthaus, Claude Monet, 1952, no. 117.

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Sammlung Emil G. Buhrle, 1958, no. 189 (as about 1910).

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; London, Royal Academy of Arts, Monet in the 20th century, 1998-1999, no. 59, p. 192, repr. p. 194 (col.).

San Francisco, de Young Museum; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Monet: The Late Years, Feb. 16-Sept. 15, 2019.