Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
Water Lilies, ca. 1914–1917

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) was boundlessly inspired by the water-lily pond he created in his garden at Giverny. Throughout his last three decades of life he painted it repeatedly, attempting to capture the play of light and shadow in reflections of the flowering plant life that graced the water’s surface. Monet’s artistic focus resulted in a glorious body of work inseparable from its subject matter. The water lilies painting featured here, created when the artist was in his mid seventies, is in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.