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Water Lilies

ca. 1914-1917

Dark blossoms and bright leaves drift among the reflected clouds on the water’s surface. No horizon is in sight. In the 1880s and 1890s, Monet developed a small natural pond on his property at Giverny into an extensive water garden inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e prints. This garden functioned as a kind of outdoor studio where he ultimately painted some two hundred fifty pictures, among them several of his most iconic works. This example likely dates to the mid-1910s but betrays no hint of the First World War raging not far from Giverny.

Artist: Claude Monet
Title: Water Lilies
Date: ca. 1914-1917
Place of Creation: Giverny
Object Type: Painting
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 65 3/8 x 56 in. (166.1 x 142.2 cm) Image: 71 x 57 1/2 in. (180.34 x 146.05 cm)
Credit Line: Museum purchase, Mildred Anna Williams Collection
Accession Number: 1973.3

The artist’s studio, Giverny, France [1]
By descent, to his son, Michel Monet (1878-1966), Giverny, France
[Sold to Katia Granoff, Paris, ca. 1955] [2]
Sold to John Huston, Los Angeles and Ireland, 1956
[Possibly sold to O’Hana Gallery, London, 1970] [3]
[Spencer A. Samuels & Co., New York, by 1971] [4]
Sold to Mrs. Enid Annenberg Haupt, New York, 1971
[Consigned to Spencer A. Samuels & Co., New York, 1972]
Sold to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1973

[1] See Wildenstein 1996 IV, p. 843, no. 1788.
[2] Per letter from Marc Larock, director general of Galerie Katia Granoff, 24 September 1991, object file, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
[3] Per Wildenstein 1996 IV, p. 843, no. 1788.
[4] As listed in 10 November 1972 invoice received from Spencer A. Samuels &Co., object file, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of Art, April–November 1971. Collection loan.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (California Palace of the Legion of Honor), January 19– March 17, 1974; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, March 23–May 5, 1974; Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, May 18–June 30, 1974. “Claude Monet: Paintings in California Collections,” no. 11.

The Art Institute of Chicago, March 15–May 11, 1975. “Paintings by Monet,” no. 118.

Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, July 20–October 19, 1986. “Claude Monet: Nympheas, Impression–Vision,” no. 30.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, April 10–June 14, 1992; Fukuoka Art Museum, July 1–26, 1992; Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, August 8–September 13, 1992; Yokohama, Sogo Museum of Art, September 23–October 25, 1992. “European Masters from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,” no. 63.

Canberra, Australian National Gallery, November 14, 1992–January 31, 1993; Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, February 19–May 10, 1993; Auckland City Art Museum, June 5–August 29, 1993. “Rembrandt to Renoir: European Masterpieces from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,” no. 63.

San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, June 17– September 17, 2006; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, October 15, 2006– January 14, 2007; The Cleveland Museum of Art, February 18–May 20, 2007. “Monet in Normandy,” no. 59.

Paris, Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, September 22, 2010–January 24, 2011. “Claude Monet: 1840–1926,” no. 166.

Hartford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum, February 17–June 12, 2011. “Monet’s Water Lilies: An Artist’s Obsession,” no. 7.

Charlottenlund, DK, Ordrupgaard, August 24–December 4, 2016. “Monet: Beyond Impressionism,” no cat. no.

San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (de Young Museum), February 16– May 27, 2019; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, June 16– September 15, 2019. “Monet: The Late Years,” no. 11.

The Hague, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, October 12, 2019–February 2, 2020. “Monet: The Garden Paintings.”
Rouart, Denis, and Jean–Dominique Rey, Monet: Nymphéas ou Les Miroirs du Temps, Paris: Fernand Hazan, 1972, repr. pg. 177.

Claude Monet, Paintings in California Collections, exh. cat., San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1974, pg. 17, repr. pg. 31, no. 11.

Wise, Susan, ed., Paintings by Monet, exh. cat., Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1975, pg. 174, repr. pg. 175, no. 118.

Bordeaux, Jean–Luc, “Un Musée Français en Californie,” Connaissance des Arts, no. 299 (January 1977), pgs. 32–41, repr.

Sherman, Lila, Art Museums of America: A guide to the Collections in the United States and Canada, New York: William Morrow and Company, 1980, pg. 36.

Wilson, William, The Los Angeles Times Book of California Museums, New York: H.N. Abrams, 1984, repr. pg. 81, pg. 82.

Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet: Biographie et Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 4, Lausanne and Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts, 1985, pg. 252, repr. pg. 253, no. 1788.

Geelhaar, Christian, Nympheas: Impression, Vision, exh. cat., Basel: Kunstmuseum Basel, 1986, repr. pg. 68, pg. 175, no. 30.

Forbes, James, “Gallery Dedications,” Triptych (Summer 1988), pg. 18, repr.

Nash, Steven A., Lynn Federle Orr and Marion C. Stewart, European Masterworks from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, exh. Cat., Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1992, pg. 251, no. 63, repr., entry by Steven A. Nash.

Nash, Steven A., Lynn Federle Orr and Marion C. Stewart, Rembrandt to Renoir: European Masterpieces from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, exh. cat., Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1992, pgs. 164, 166, repr. pg. 165, no. 63, entry by Steven A. Nash.

Nash, Steven A., Lynn Federle Orr, Marion C. Stewart, Masterworks of European Painting in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1999, pg. 138, repr., entry by Steve A. Nash.

Wildenstein, Daniel, Claude Monet: Biographie et Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 4 (Nos. 1596–1983 et Les Grandes Décorations), Cologne: Taschen, 1999, repr. pg. 842, pg. 843, no. 1788.

Lemonedes, Heather, Lynn Federle Orr, and David Steel, Monet in Normandy, exh. cat., San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2006, pgs. 168, 172, repr. pg. 171, no. 59, entry by Lynn Federle Orr.

Rouart, Julie (with Camille Sourisse), “Catalogue Raisonneé,” in Monet Water Lilies: The Complete Series, eds. Jean Dominique Rey and Denis Rouart, Paris: Flammarion, 2008, pg. 131, repr.

Cogeval, Guy, et. al., Claude Monet: 1840–1926, exh. cat., Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2010, repr. pg. 341, pg. 371, no. 166.

Rubin, James H., “Near to Far: Monet’s World of Water Lilies,” in Monet’s Water Lilies: An Artist’s Obsession, ed. Eric Zafran, Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 2011, pg. 31, no. 7, fig. 25.

Buron, Melissa, “Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’ Return to the Legion,” Fine Arts (Winter/Spring 2012), pg. 22, repr.

Tucker, Paul Hayes, “Monet’s Nympheas,” in Monet: Beyond Impressionism, exh. cat., ed. Anne–Birgitte Fonsmark, Copenhagen: Ordrupgaard, 2016, pg. 168, fig. 116, repr. pg. 169 (also repr. on cover).

Shackelford, George T.M., ed., Monet: The Late Years, Fort Worth: Kimbell Art Museum, 2019, repr. pg. 126, pgs. 127, 210, no. 11.

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Bibliography

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A mature man preparing to make love to a young girl, ninth scene from the series Handscroll for the Sleeve (Sode no maki), ca. 1780-1790

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