Water Lilies (Agapanthus)

Monet painted Water Lilies (Agapanthus) between 1915 and 1926, during the last decade of his life, at his studio in Giverny. He was in his late seventies and eighties, his eyesight failing from cataracts, and he was painting the water garden he had created at Giverny with an intensity that bordered on obsession. This painting is one of a group of large-scale Water Lilies canvases that Monet began in 1914, after the death of his wife Alice, and continued until his own death in 1926. The painting shows the surface of the water lily pond at Giverny, with agapanthus flowers visible at the edges. The canvas is very wide, nearly four and a half meters, and it is filled with water: green, blue, and violet, with the reflections of trees and sky visible on the surface. Water lilies float in clusters across the pond, their white and pink flowers painted in small, thick strokes of opaque paint. The agapanthus, with their tall stems and blue flowers, are visible at the left and right edges, framing the view of the water. This painting is related to the Water Lilies triptych that Monet donated to the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris, where three huge canvases are installed in two oval rooms, surrounding the viewer with water. The Cleveland painting is one of the panels that Monet considered for the Orangerie installation, but it was not included in the final gift. It is one of the largest Water Lilies paintings outside of Paris. Monet's late Water Lilies are the most radical work of his career. They abandon all traditional structure: there is no horizon, no foreground, no background. The viewer is looking straight down at the water, and the only spatial cues are the reflections and the position of the lilies. The paintings are also the most abstract work Monet ever produced, with the surface covered in patches of color that describe the water and the reflections without drawing them. These paintings would influence the Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s, especially Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, who saw in Monet's late work a model for large-scale abstract painting. Oil on canvas, 200 by 426 centimeters. Monet painted with short, overlapping strokes, building the water in layers of translucent and opaque color. The lilies are painted in thick, opaque strokes of white and pink, which sit on the surface of the canvas like the lilies sit on the surface of the water. The agapanthus are painted in tall, vertical strokes of blue and green, which contrast with the horizontal strokes of the water. The surface has the rich, encrusted quality of a painting built over many years. The very wide format makes this print work best as a large, panoramic display. The greens, blues, and violets pair with white walls, natural wood, and rooms with a calm, contemplative mood. The 18x24 size captures the essence of the composition. The painting has a meditative, immersive quality that suits rooms where people rest or think. The painting entered the Cleveland Museum of Art as a bequest from Leonard C. Hanna Jr. in 1958. This is a CC0 artwork from the Cleveland Museum of Art. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed.