There is no single Water Lilies. There are about two hundred and fifty — oil paintings of one pond in Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny, made over the last thirty years of his life, from small canvases you could carry to murals that fill two oval rooms in Paris. Together they are one of the great obsessions in art: a painter in his seventies and eighties, losing his eyesight, painting the same water again and again until the water became the whole picture.
A garden built to be painted
Monet moved to Giverny, west of Paris, in 1883. Ten years later he bought the land across the road and dug a pond fed from a nearby stream, planted water lilies, and spanned it with a Japanese-style footbridge. He employed gardeners to keep the surface just as he wanted it. The pond was, in effect, a studio — and from the late 1890s it was almost all he painted.
From a bridge to the surface
The early pictures show a recognisable view: the footbridge, the banks, the lilies in perspective. Over the years Monet moved closer and lowered his eyes. The banks and sky disappear; the horizon goes; what is left is the surface of the water itself — lily pads, flowers, and the reflections of clouds and willows above. Without an edge or a horizon, the paintings feel like they could continue in any direction, which is exactly what the largest of them were designed to do.
The later canvases have no horizon, no edge, no single point of view — only water, light and reflection, as if the viewer were floating on the pond.
A monument to peace
On 12 November 1918, the day after the Armistice, Monet wrote to his friend the prime minister Georges Clemenceau offering two panels to the nation to celebrate the victory. The gift grew. In 1922 he signed an agreement to give the State a cycle of great decorative panels, and the Musée de l’Orangerie in the Tuileries garden was rebuilt with two egg-shaped rooms to hold them. Monet died in December 1926; the rooms opened to the public in May 1927. Today eight compositions, all about two metres high, curve around the walls, with the sunrise scenes to the east and the sunset scenes to the west.
Painting through cataracts
From around 1912 Monet’s eyesight was failing. Cataracts dimmed and yellowed his vision, and some of the late pictures — of the pond and of the footbridge — are painted in hot reds, browns and yellows, with violent, broken brushwork. He had surgery in 1923. Historians still debate how much the late style is illness and how much is intention; the honest answer is probably both.
Where to see them
The Orangerie holds the great cycle, and the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris has a large group of late works from the family. Elsewhere, Water Lilies are among the most sought-after pictures in museums from London and New York to Tokyo. Not all survived: in 1958 a fire at the Museum of Modern Art in New York destroyed one of its large Water Lilies and damaged another.
- Artist
- Claude Monet
- French title
- Nymphéas
- Dates
- Late 1890s – 1926
- Number
- About 250 oil paintings
- Subject
- The water garden at Giverny
- Great cycle
- Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris (opened 1927)
Standing in front of one of the many versions? Art & Painting Identifier names the work, artist and style from a single photo and explains where it fits in the series — handy when the label just says “Water Lilies” and so do the next five.
The takeaway
Water Lilies is less a painting than a thirty-year experiment: one pond, endless weather, and a painter stripping away everything but light on water. If you think you’ve found a Monet-like garden scene of your own, start with identifying a painting from a photo — and remember that Impressionist styles were copied by thousands of painters, which is why attribution wording matters so much at auction.
At a glance
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet |
| Dates | Late 1890s – 1926 |
| Number | About 250 oil paintings |
| Subject | The water garden at Giverny |
| Movement | Impressionism |
| Great cycle | Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris (opened 1927) |
Frequently asked questions
How many Water Lilies paintings did Monet make?
About 250, from small easel pictures to huge mural panels, over the last thirty years of his life.
Where can I see Monet’s Water Lilies?
The great cycle is at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris; the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris and many museums worldwide hold individual paintings.
Did Monet’s cataracts affect the paintings?
His vision deteriorated from about 1912 until surgery in 1923, and some late works are painted in hot reds and yellows with broken brushwork. How much is illness and how much intention is debated.
Why did Monet give the Water Lilies to France?
He offered panels to the nation the day after the Armistice in 1918 as a monument to peace; the gift was formalised in 1922.
Sources and further reading
- History of the Water Lilies cycle — Musée de l’Orangerie
- Water Lilies (Monet series) — Wikipedia
Links checked October 4, 2026.
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