À propos de l’œuvre
Les lilies d'eau, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · circa 1922 · Toledo Museum of Art · 1981.54
Water Lilieshand painted reproduction
On a canvas of more than two meters, Monet removes the shore and the horizon. Purple, white and yellow water lilies float above a network of turquoise leaves, blue-green reflections and purplish passages where the depth changes with each touch.
Look at the work
A monumental pool which no longer leaves any room for the traditional landscape
The field is entirely occupied by water. No edge allows the distance to be measured: the nearby leaves, placed in short, light touches, mingle with the darker vertical reflections. The flower groups range without symmetry, with a luminous concentration in the upper half and blue breaths downwards.
The palette does not clearly separate the vegetation from the reflected sky. Turquoise changes to olive green, then blue and purple; creamy yellows awaken the leaves, while a few pinks and mauves give the flowers an immediate presence. The large scale transforms these color gaps into real space.
Monet does not paint a view of the pool but the experience of a gaze suspended above the water, shared between the surface of the leaves and the depth of the reflections.
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 composition without shore or horizon
The framing does not provide any terrestrial reference. Reproduction must therefore construct depth only by values, green temperature and key direction.
Flowers grouped together in an irregular rhythm
White, yellow and purple water lilies do not form a uniform seedling. The voids between groups are as large as the flowers and keep the web breathing.
Reflections that pass through the leaves
The green, blue and purple passages must remain visible under and between the small horizontal shapes. A background that is too homogeneous would immediately flatten this monumental version.
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 main view measures 2000 × 1883 px. The details of 1050 × 1050 px and 1100 × 1050 px are direct cropping of this precise version of Toledo. No artificial enlargement has been applied; all three files are real WebPs.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
These facts concern this precise version and are verified from the notice of the institution which keeps it.
The 1981.54 inventory of the Toledo Museum of Art
The museum dates this oil on canvas to around 1922 and measures the support at 200.7 × 213.4 cm. The work belongs to the public domain.
A canvas of more than four square meters
With more than two meters in each direction, this version belongs to the large late water lilies. The feeling of immersion depends as much on this magnitude as on the absence of horizon.
Acquired thanks to the Libbey Endowment
The Toledo Museum of Art purchased the work in 1981 with endowment funds bequeathed by Edward Drummond Libbey, founder and important patron of the museum.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The total absence of shore and horizon line
- The irregular rhythm of flowers and water spaces
- Vertical reflections visible between horizontal sheets
- Nuanced transitions from turquoise to purple without uniform flat areas
Work sheet
| Title | Water Lilies |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | around 1922 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 200.7 × 213.4 cm |
| Orientation | Almost square |
| Conservation | Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, United States |
| Inventory | 1981.54 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
This almost square reproduction becomes a powerful visual focus in a living room, entrance or bedroom. Its water greens, muted blues and mauves match linen, light wood, sage green and cream walls, with enough perspective to read the whole and then the material.
