The Water-Lily Pond

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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In 1893 Monet bought a plot of land next to his house in Giverny. He had already planted a colourful flower garden, but now he wanted to create a water garden ‘both for the pleasure of the eye and for the purpose of having subjects to paint'. He enlarged the existing pond, filling it with exotic new hybrid water lilies, and built a humpback bridge at one end, inspired by examples seen in Japanese prints. The water garden became the main obsession of Monet’s later career, and the subject of some 250 paintings. Here, the bridge spans the width of the canvas but is cut off at the edges so that it seems to float unanchored above the water, its shape reflected in a dark arc at the bottom of the picture. The perspective seems to shift; it is as though we are looking up at the bridge but down on the water lilies which float towards the distance.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

The Water-Lily Pond

Date

1899

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 88.3 x W 93.1 cm

Accession number

NG4240

Acquisition method

Bought, 1927

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

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