À propos de l’œuvre
Le bassin aux nymphéas, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · around 1917 -1920 · Fondation Beyeler 77.3 · W1968 -1970
The Water Lilies Basin, Beyeler triptych W1968 -1970hand painted reproduction
For nearly nine meters, the basin extends without a bank or horizon. A deep blue area opens the left panel, vertical reflections cross the center and a darker plant mass closes the right. Above, roses, mauves and yellows evoke reflected light rather than a visible sky. The three panels make up a single continuous space where water, trees and water lilies change scale as the gaze shifts.
Look at the work
Three panels bring together water, reflections and water lilies in a panoramic surface of almost nine meters
The left panel is dominated by blues and purples, punctuated with green discs and pink flowers. In the center, the vertical reflections become lighter and meet a long fishing zone near the upper edge. The third panel is loaded with deep greens and brown shapes. This progression does not illustrate a linear movement: it varies the density and temperature of the same body of water.
The joints between the three canvases remain perceptible, but the touches, colors and groups of water lilies pass through them visually. No vanishing point controls the whole. The viewer reads the composition by scanning, from the blue depth on the left to the dark vegetation on the right, then returns to the pinks and yellows that connect the panels in their upper part.
The panoramic scale does not show any more landscape: it removes limits and places the viewer before the very duration of their gaze on the water.
Composition, touch and light
What Monet builds behind the impression of snapshot
Three precise elements allow us to understand this composition and the essential difficulties of faithful reproduction.
A continuity built through three panels
Colors and groups of water lilies visually cross both joints. Their position must be respected so that the triptych remains a single field rather than three juxtaposed tables.
Vertical reflections under a very free touch
Blues, greens and browns descend from the top, then are cut by horizontal marks. This meeting between reflection and surface continually shifts the depth.
A warm light without a sky represented
Peach pink, mauve and yellow occupy the upper part. These colors should remain mixed with blues and greens in order to evoke reflected light rather than an independent strip of sky.
Details and visual documents
Observe the material and the exact version
The additional images show the difficult-to-read passages in the full view and, where it exists, the actual appearance of the work at the museum.
The full view measures 5,001 × 1,100 px. The actual photograph of the museum, taken by Roxaneweb in 2017 and published under CC BY-SA 4.0 license, is offered in 4,000 × 3,000 px; the detail measures 2,000 × 1,100 px; the detail measures 2,000 × 1,100 px; the detail measures 2,000 × 1,100 px. No files have been artificially enlarged.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
This information concerns the triptych of the Fondation Beyeler, inventory 77.3, composed of the three Wildenstein panels 1968, 1969 and 1970.
Fondation Beyeler 77.3, W1968 -1970
Painted around 1917 -1920, the triptych brings together three oils on canvas each measuring 200.7 × 301 cm. The whole reaches approximately nine meters wide and corresponds to the 1968, 1969 and 1970 numbers of the Wildenstein catalog.
Estampilles of the estate on the three panels
Each panel bears the Claude Monet estate stamp at the bottom right as well as another mark on the reverse, in the upper right. These marks accompany the work remaining in the studio after the painter's death.
From Michel Monet to the Beyeler collection
The ensemble moved from Michel Monet to the Katia Granoff Gallery, then joined the Beyeler collection in 1977. It was loaned to the Kunstmuseum Basel from 1977 to 1980 then from 1988 to 1997, before becoming one of the major works of the Fondation Beyeler.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The exact triptych of the Fondation Beyeler, 77.3 and W1968 -1970
- The panoramic proportions of the three panels of 200.7 × 301 cm
- The continuity of patterns and colors across the two joints
- The progression from deep blue to dark greens with no added horizon
Work sheet
| Title | The Water Lilies Basin, Beyeler triptych W1968 -1970 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | around 1917 -1920 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 3 panels of 200.7 × 301 cm, approximately 9 m in total |
| Orientation | Panoramic |
| Conservation | Fondation Beyeler, Riehen /Basel, Switzerland |
| Inventory | 77.3 · Wildenstein 1968 -1970 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Deep blue, turquoise, bottle green, peach pink and purple give this panoramic reproduction an immersive presence. It requires a long, open wall, above a sofa or in a reception area, with homogeneous light and sober materials that allow the composition to breathe.
