Giverny · 1914 -1926 · the garden becomes surface
Blue-purple scapes rise from the water, leaves mingle with reflections, water lilies float like clear notes. With the Agapanthus, Monet no longer only paints his garden: he invents a painting that envelops the eye.
The pattern comes from Giverny, but it shifts into the grand decor. Between the MoMA canvas, the versions from the Marmottan Monet museum and the monumental triptych now distributed in the United States, agapanthus become an essential link between real flower, pond and abstraction.
Pattern guide
From the garden planted by Monet to the monumental triptych, including composition, palette and museums.
Key facts
What are Monet's Agapanthus?
A set of late works where Monet combines vertical flowers, long leaves, water lilies and reflections of water. The botanical subject becomes a system of lines, spots and colors capable of preparing the Great Decorations.
A garden motif that has become a decor
Agapanthus are blue or purple flowers from the Giverny garden. Monet uses them as vertical landmarks in a liquid universe: they cross the surface and give tension to the water lily layers.
- Landmark work
- Agapanthus, W1822
- Date
- 1914 - 1926
- Dimensions
- 198.2 × 178.4 cm
- Museum
- MoMA, 527.1992
Timeline
From the private pool to the monumental decor
The pattern developed as Monet expanded his ambition: he no longer wanted to just paint a garden view, but to build a continuous color experience.
The basin
Monet bought the neighboring land and developed the water garden which would become his large visual laboratory.
The framing tightens
Monet gradually focuses his gaze on the sheet of water, the flowers and the reflections, reducing the banks and the horizon.
Large formats
Monet returns to the big decor and multiplies the panels where the flowers structure the surface.
Agapanthus
The big panels Water Lilies (Agapanthus) take on an immersive dimension.
Giverny
The real garden: an open-air workshop
For Monet, the garden is not a passive setting. It is chosen, planted, modified, maintained, then regarded as a living composition.
Why agapanthus matters
Their shape is ideal: long stems, light flowery masses, a color between blue and mauve. They give a supple verticality to a painting dominated by the horizontality of water.
Verticals
The stems breathe the surface and guide the gaze.
Reflections
The flower may be above the water or already dissolved in its reflection.
Rhythm
Flowers punctuate the canvas like musical accents.
Decor
The pattern stretches beyond the painting, like a plant frieze.
Visual analysis
A composition almost without horizon
The Agapanthus switch to surface painting: no stable perspective, little ground, almost no sky. It's all in the circulation of the gaze.
The edge disappears
We no longer know exactly where the shore ends or where the water begins. Monet removes the natural setting from the landscape.
The stem becomes line
The agapanthus draw a vertical, almost calligraphic writing on the liquid background.
Color carries space
Blues, greens and purples replace traditional depth: the eye advances in vibrations.
The pattern continues
As in Glycines, we feel that the composition could extend outside the frame.
Palette
Blues, mauves, greens: a pool color
The palette is cold, but never monotonous. Blue-purple flowers meet water greens, water lily whites and pink or yellow touches that warm the surface.
Rhythm
The flower as a score
Like the Glycines, the Agapanthus can be read like visual music: climbs, fallouts, pauses, covers.
The poles rise
They give pulsation and prevent water from becoming a simple decorative surface.
Water lilies float
The pool spreads out the image and opens it towards the panorama.
The brushwork connects
Brushstrokes move the gaze from one flower to another.
Great decor
The monumental triptych
The big set Water Lilies (Agapanthus) extends the logic of wall decor: making the painting a place. Its three panels W1975, W1976 and W1977 total approximately 12.77 meters. They are today separated between three American museums and are not part of the Orangery installation.
Cleveland
201.3 × 425.6 cm · inventory 1960.81. The once visible agapanthus were largely covered by Monet.
Saint Louis
Approximately 200 × 426.1 cm · inventory 134:1956. The center connects the water lily sheets of the other two panels.
Nelson Atkins
200.7 × 426.1 cm · inventory 57-26. Monet took it up until his death, simplifying several groups of flowers.
When the three panels respond to each other
Gathered together, they show that Monet thought in an environment, not in an isolated painting: the gaze moves as if in front of a wall of water.
| Work | Date | Dimensions | Museum and number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agapanthus (W1822) | 1914 - 1926 | 198.2 × 178.4 cm | MoMA · 527.1992 |
| Water lilies and Agapanthus (W1821) | 1914 - 1917 | vertical canvas | Marmottan Monet Museum · 5084 |
| Triptych Agapanthus (W1975 -W1977) | around 1915 -1926 | approx. 201.3 × 1,277.3 cm combined | Cleveland · Saint Louis · Nelson-Atkins |
Museums
Where to see Agapanthus?
The works are scattered, which makes them fascinating to read: each museum keeps a piece of the same decorative dream.
Paris and New York
MoMA preserves Agapanthus. The Marmottan Monet Museum preserves essential versions from the Monet family.
- MoMA: large Agapanthus canvas
- Marmottan: versions 1914 -1917
- Orangery: context of the Great Decorations
The USA
The monumental triptych is divided between Cleveland, Saint Louis and Kansas City. Seeing it together is rare, but understanding it as a whole changes everything.
- Cleveland: left panel
- St. Louis: central panel
- Nelson-Atkins: right panel
Look
How to read these works?
A few simple actions are enough to avoid remaining on the decorative surface.
Start from the stems
They organize the canvas like vertical writing.
Follow water
Reflections move the gaze without a fixed perspective.
Read the blanks
Water lilies open breaths in color.
Back off
From a distance, the painting becomes atmosphere and not description.
Shop
Nearby works to explore
Two exact reproductions are now available: the left panel of the triptych in Cleveland, W1975, and Water lilies and Agapanthus from the Marmottan Monet Museum, W1821. Two water landscapes complete the comparison.
Water lilies (Agapanthus)
The left panel of the monumental triptych, circa 1915 -1926.
See reproduction
Water lilies and Agapanthus
The vertical canvas of 1914 -1917, inventory 5084.
See reproduction
The Water Lilies Basin
Another late canvas in panoramic format.
See reproduction
Water lilies, reflections on the water
An earlier step in tightening the framing.
See reproductionFAQs
Frequently asked questions
Dates, museums, triptych: points to remember without getting lost in the variations.
What are Monet's Agapanthus?
This name brings together several late works inspired by agapanthus planted near the Giverny basin. Monet uses their stems and blue-mauve flowers to punctuate surfaces mixing water, leaves and reflections.
What is the date of Agapanthus at MoMA?
The MoMA dates Agapanthus from 1914 -1926. This oil canvas measures 198.2 × 178.4 cm, bears the number 527.1992 and corresponds to the Wildenstein W1822 catalog.
The canvas Agapanthus does MoMA belong to the triptych?
No. The MoMA's vertical canvas, W1822, is distinct from the monumental triptych composed of panels W1975, W1976 and W1977.
What are the dimensions of the Agapanthus triptych?
Gathered together, the triptych measures approximately 201.3 cm high by 1,277.3 cm wide, or nearly 12.77 meters. Each panel measures approximately 4.26 meters wide.
What is the order of the three panels of the triptych?
The left panel W1975 is at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the center panel W1976 is at the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the right panel W1977 is at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.
Is the Agapanthus triptych at the Orangery?
No. Monet considered this triptych for a decorative project, but it is not one of the twenty-two panels finally installed at the Orangerie in 1927.
Where to see Monet's Agapanthus?
We can see the canvas Agapanthus at MoMA in New York, works close to the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris and the three panels of the triptych separately in Cleveland, Saint Louis and Kansas City.
Why is the triptych named Agapanthus ?
The title comes from the agapanthus initially visible in the left panel. Technical research shows that Monet covered part of it during his long covers.
What work of the Agapanthus is kept at the Marmottan Monet museum?
The Marmottan Monet museum preserves in particular Water lilies and Agapanthus, dated 1914 -1917, inventory 5084 and Wildenstein W1821 marker.
Why do these works seem almost abstract?
Monet reduces or removes the banks and the horizon. Color, brush gestures and continuity of reflections then take precedence over a stable perspective.
Sources
Main references
Museum notices make it possible to distinguish the works, their dimensions and the history of the triptych.
MoMA
Agapanthus W1822: date, dimensions and inventory.
Left panelCleveland
W1975: measurements and official notice 1960.81.
Central panelSaint Louis
W1976: dimensions and inventory 134:1956.
Right panelNelson Atkins
W1977: order of the triptych, dimensions and technical history.
Late studiesMarmottan Monet
Context of the works of 1914 -1917 and the Michel Monet legacy.
Monumental contextOrangery
The eight compositions and twenty-two panels installed in 1927.
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