Artwork
Water Lilies
Water Lilies is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Claude Monet. It dates from 1905 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Painted in 1905, this oil on canvas depicts a section of the water garden at Monet's home in Giverny, focusing on the surface of the pond.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Water Lilies is a landscape painting by Claude Monet that depicts water lilies, a subject the artist explored extensively in his later career.
Water Lilies is a landscape painting by Claude Monet that depicts water lilies, a subject the artist explored extensively in his later career. Classified within the Impressionist movement, the work presents the floating aquatic blossoms as its central motif, rendered in oil on canvas. The painting belongs to Monet's ongoing visual meditation on his garden pond at Giverny, where he cultivated water lilies and observed their shifting appearances across hours and seasons.
The imagery of water lilies carries symbolic resonance as a meditation on nature, transience, and perception. By focusing on the surface of the water and its floating flora, the composition dissolves traditional landscape boundaries between water, sky, and vegetation, inviting contemplation of reflected light and atmospheric change rather than fixed form.
Technique & Style
Claude Monet's Water Lilies (1905) is an oil painting executed on canvas, adhering to the Impressionist movement's focus on landscape subjects. The work depicts water lilies and measures 89.5 cm in height by 100.3 cm in width. As a landscape painting, it utilizes oil paint to capture the natural scene, a medium consistent with Monet's practice during this period. The piece is currently held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
History & Provenance
Claude Monet created the oil painting Water Lilies in 1905. The work, which depicts water lilies and measures 89.5 by 100.3 centimeters, is currently held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. No further details regarding its commission, specific ownership history prior to the museum, or creation circumstances are provided in the available sources.
The 1905 oil painting Water Lilies by Claude Monet is held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The work bears the accession number 39.804 within the institution's records. It is classified as a landscape painting executed on canvas, measuring 89.5 cm in height and 100.3 cm in width.
No specific exhibition history is documented in the provided sources for this particular version of the work.
Overview
Claude Monet’s 1905 oil painting titled “Water Lilies” presents a tranquil pond populated by floating lilies. The composition captures the delicate pink and white blossoms perched upon broad green pads, set against a backdrop of muted blues and purples. Light ripples across the water’s surface, creating a subtle, shimmering effect that defines the work’s atmospheric quality.
Context
“Water Lilies” belongs to the series of pond studies that Monet produced after establishing his garden as a living laboratory for exploring light and color. The work exemplifies the transition from early Impressionist plein‑air sketches to more abstracted, atmospheric compositions that prefigure modernist concerns.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter and founder of Impressionism who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it.
