Water Lilies

Claude Monet painted this Water Lilies canvas in 1906 as part of his decades-long obsession with his garden pond at Giverny. The surface fills the entire composition: no horizon, no sky, just floating lily pads and reflected clouds dissolving into shimmering color.

By this period, Monet had eliminated the Japanese bridge and shoreline from his compositions. The water itself became his entire subject. He worked on multiple canvases simultaneously, switching between them as the light changed throughout the day. This approach let him capture fleeting atmospheric effects with an almost scientific dedication to observation.

The painting hangs at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, one of several Water Lilies held by American museums. Monet produced roughly 250 water lily paintings over the last 30 years of his life, making it the longest sustained series by any Impressionist painter.