À propos de l’œuvre
Les Nymphéas : Reflets verts, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1914 -1926 · Orangery · INV 20102
Green reflections, Water Lilieshand painted reproduction
Two panels form eight and a half meters of dark water, without horizon, bank or visible sky. Water lilies float in irregular constellations while long green, blue and purple trails give the pool an almost nocturnal depth.
Look at the work
A basin without a bank where only flowers allow you to read the surface
Monet removes all traditional landmarks from the landscape. The gaze meets neither horizon line nor edge of the pond: the oval leaves and flowers placed on the water are the only elements that indicate where the surface is.
The composition becomes denser at the ends and in the lower part. Between these plant clusters, vast blue-green areas remain open. Vertical reflections plunge behind the water lilies and create the impression of water that is both flat and very deep.
Green reflections do not show the garden around the pond: Monet holds the entire landscape in what the water absorbs, overturns and transforms.
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.
Two panels melted into a single expanse
Dark masses and water lily lines cross the junction. Faithful reproduction must maintain this continuity without erasing the breathing specific to each part.
Flowers concentrated rather than regularly distributed
Water lilies form asymmetrical groups, separated by almost empty areas of water. This irregularity prevents the composition from becoming decorative or repetitive.
Greens that remain mixed with blue and purple
Depth comes from temperature changes in dark areas. A uniform green would remove reflections and the impression of transparency.
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 reference scan was reduced from 8,826 × 2,034 px to 8,000 × 1,844 px; the detail measures 3,600 × 1,800 px and the actual room photograph 5,400 × 2,900 px. No files have been enlarged; all three images 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 INV 20102 set in two panels
Made between 1914 and 1926, Reflets vertes is made up of two oil panels on canvas, joined together and mounted on the wall. The whole measures 200 × 850 cm.
The first room of the Water Lilies
The panel is presented on the ground floor in room 1 of the large decor. The actual photograph shows its curvature, scale and relationship to neighboring compositions.
A work offered to the State in 1922
Monet's donation was approved in 1922. The whole passed administratively through the Luxembourg Museum before final installation at the Orangerie, opened to the public in 1927.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The exact INV 20102 set in two panels
- The monumental ratio of 200 × 850 cm
- Water lilies grouped asymmetrically
- Deep greens modulated by blue and purple
Work sheet
| Title | Green reflections, Water Lilies |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1914 - 1926 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 200 × 850 cm in total |
| Orientation | Two monumental panoramic panels |
| Conservation | Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France |
| Inventory | INV 20102 |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Deep green, petrol blue, purple and discreet pink give this reproduction an enveloping presence. Its panoramic format works on an ivory, dark green, midnight blue or light stone wall.
