Water Lilies

The picture has neither the bank of the pond nor the sky, only the surface of the water. The center reflects the light of the sky and is whitish and bright, clusters of lily pads float at the upper right and lower left, and yellow, pink and red blossoms bloom here and there. The pads and flowers are not drawn in detail but expressed with layered short strokes as a flickering on the water. The picture is 73 centimeters high and 92.5 centimeters wide, with a signature at the lower right.

After the age of fifty, Monet built a garden at his home, raised water lilies in the pond, and painted them repeatedly until late in life. In this work of around 1906, the brightness of the sky reflected on the water occupies most of the picture, and the water lilies are pushed to its edges. The broad surface of the water itself is the protagonist of this painting. At the time, Japanese art was fashionable in France, and Monet too avidly collected ukiyo-e prints.

In autumn 1920, Kojima Torajiro visited Monet's studio at Giverny and bought this work from Monet himself. It is one of the signature works of the Ohara Museum of Art. In 2000, to mark the museum's seventieth anniversary, water lilies divided from plants in Monet's garden were planted in the museum's pond.