Claude-Oscar Monet - Water-Lilies [after 1916]

Claude-Oscar Monet - Water-Lilies [after 1916], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Following his move to Giverny in 1883 and the exhibition in 1900 of his first series of paintings of the water garden (including The Water-Lily Pond), Monet conceived the idea of an ambitious decoration recreating the effect of the garden on a larger scale. A studio was built in 1916 to accommodate the large canvases the painter was working on. After his death a group of nineteen of these paintings were presented to the nation and installed in the Orangerie in Paris. This work is one of a number of canvases painted at the same period, but not included in the final scheme. Almost abstract in effect, it shows a close-up of the surface of the pond with groups of lilies highlighted against the shadows of trees in a rich colour harmony of green, blue and pink.

[Oil on canvas, 200.7 x 426.7 cm]