À propos de l’œuvre
Nymphéas, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · circa 1915 · three pink flowers, one white and the reflections of a willow
Water lilies, circa 1915hand painted reproduction
Water fills the entire canvas, without edge or horizon. Three pink flowers and a white flower float between the leaves while the branches of a willow outside the frame become long green columns in the reflection.
Look at the work
Four flowers organize a pool without shore or horizon
Preserved by the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen under number 14562, this canvas measures 151.4 × 201 cm. Monet looks almost vertically at the surface of the pool and lets the leaves, flowers and reflections occupy the entire visual field.
Monet looks almost vertically at the surface of the pool. The large oval leaves create successive planes, but no bank fixes the distance. The green reflections of the willow descend into the water, the blues evoke the sky and the flowers provide four luminous landmarks.
The painting brings together several impossible directions in a traditional landscape: we look down, while the sky and the branches appear in their 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.
Four flowers as landmarks
Three pink water lilies occupy the lower half and a white flower illuminates the upper left area. Their distribution avoids any axis of symmetry.
Ovales that move forward and backward
The leaves overlap and change size. They suggest depth without geometric perspective or horizon line.
The willow present by its reflection
The tree is off-camera. Its branches appear green and dark verticals that pass through the leaves and visually connect the top and bottom.
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 official image measures 3000 × 2253 px and is distributed by Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen under CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Both details are cropping without enlargement; 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.
Neue Pinakothek, inventory 14562
The exact version is preserved by the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. It is currently reported as on display on the ground floor, room I.
Entered the collection in 1978
The official notice indicates that the museum acquired this painting on the art market in 1978.
More than two hundred and fifty Water Lilies
The institution recalls that Monet worked on the motif for more than three decades and that the whole exceeds two hundred and fifty paintings.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The four flowers in their exact positions
- The variety of leaf size and orientation
- The verticals of the willow without making them opaque
- The continuous passage between the blues of the sky and the greens of the basin
Work sheet
| Title | Water lilies, circa 1915 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | around 1915 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 151.4 × 201 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Neue Pinakothek, Munich · room I |
| Inventory | 14562 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
With more than two meters wide in its original format, the composition creates a real visual field. It is suitable for a large and bright wall, above a sofa or in a room in stone, gray green or soft blue tones.
