Artist | Claude Monet (France, 1840 - 1926)

Year | c.1917-1919

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

100 × 200 cm

Location 📍

The ALBERTINA Museum → Level 2 - The Batliner Collection

The Water Lily Pond

Late works by Claude Monet were created in seclusion at his estate in Giverny and focus on a limited number of motifs, particularly the flower garden and the Japanese-inspired water lily pond. While earlier compositions presented scenic views with the pond and bridge at the center, his final years concentrated on selected aspects, especially the surface of the water and its reflections.

The special character of these paintings lies in the abandonment of symmetry, the absence of a horizon line, and the merging of reflection and reality. This created a play between objectivity and abstraction that goes far beyond Impressionism. From 1914 onward, Monet produced large-scale panels intended for a specific architectural setting. After the Armistice in 1918, he dedicated these “grandes décorations” to the French state, which were installed posthumously in the oval rooms of the Musée de l'Orangerie.

The present painting is one of the works prepared for this monumental decoration. In 1918, Monet ordered twenty canvases measuring 100 × 200 cm and painted them over the next two years. The composition features a unique asymmetrical distribution: dark reflections occupy nearly three-quarters of the right side, while sky light reflections are shifted to the left. This motif was later translated into a much larger format for the monumental triptych now housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.