The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Water Lilies (Agapanthus)

Water Lilies (Agapanthus)

c. 1915–26
(French, 1840–1926)
Framed: 204.9 x 430.3 x 6 cm (80 11/16 x 169 7/16 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 201.3 x 425.6 cm (79 1/4 x 167 9/16 in.)

Did You Know?

Water lilies were a recurring theme in Monet's work; he painted around 250 water lily compositions.

Description

A skilled horticulturalist as well as an artist, Claude Monet spent the last 30 years of his life painting the private garden he designed and helped cultivate at his home in Giverny. The resultant canvases are notable for their varied motifs, formats, and sizes. Monumental in scale, this rendering of his water lily pond focuses on the momentary effects of sunlight as it both penetrates and reflects off its shimmering surface. By zeroing in on the water and omitting its horizon and surrounding banks, Monet infers a limitless expanse—a perception amplified by the painting’s vast horizontal format that fills the viewer’s field of vision.
  • Estate of the artist.
    Michel Monet, Giverny, through 1950 (according to Connaissance des arts 1966).
    Katia Granoff, Paris. Bought from her by Knoedler & Co. (stock number a 6420), July 1956.
    1960-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Burlington Magazine. "Exhibitions: Paintiing in the Modern Garden." The Burlington Magazine 158, no. 1357 (April 2016): 300-301.
    Reproduced: p. 301
    Dumas, Ann, William H. Robinson, Clare A. P. Willsdon, Monty Don, James Priest, Heather Lemonedes, and Lucy I. Zimmerman. Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. 2015. catalogue no. 139 290
    City Art Museum of St. Louis. Claude Monet, a Loan Exhibition. 1957. Reproduced: cat. no. 93
    Sloane, J. C. "The Art of Impressionism: From Romanticism to Avant-Garde." In Romantic Art. Hilton Kramer, ed. New York: Art Digest, Inc, 1958. Reproduced: p. 129
    Spaeth, Eloise. American Art Museums and Galleries: An Introduction to Looking. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1960. Reproduced: p. 20
    The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art XLVII. Cleveland: [The Museum] 1960. Mentioned: p. 253; No. 66
    Francis, Henry. "Claude Monet-- Water Lilies." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47 (October 1960): 192-198. Reproduced: 192-193
    Henning, E. B. "Cleveland Museum of Art: From Turner to Gaston." Apollo: A Journal of the Arts 78 (December 1963): 481-488. Reproduced: p. 484-485
    Forge, Andrew. French Impressionists. London United Kingdom: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1966. Reproduced: fig. 38
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 197 archive.org
    "Waterlilies." Art in America: An Illustrated Magazine 54 (March 1966): 32. Reproduced: p. 32
    Alsop, Joseph. "Les Chefs-d'oeuvre de Premiere Importance du Second Musee des Etats-Unis." Connaissance des Arts 172 (June 1966): 54-63. Reproduced: p. 57, 60
    Lee, Sherman E. "The Forest and the Trees and Chinese Painting." National Palace Museum Quarterly 1, no. 2 (October 1966): 1-14. Reproduced: Pl. 1-A
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 197 archive.org
    Henning, Edward B. "Color and Field." Art International 15 (May 1971): 46-50. Reproduced: p. 46
    Rouart, Denis, Jean Dominique Rey, Robert Maillard. Monet, nymphéas; ou, Les miroirs du temps. Paris, France: F. Hazan, 1972. Reproduced: p. 177
    Wildenstein, Daniel. Claude Monet: Biographie et Catalogue Raisonné. Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des arts, 1974. Reproduced and mentioned: vol. 4, p. 316-322, no. 1975
    House, John. Monet. London, United Kingdom: Oxford, 1977. Reproduced: pl. 47, Mentioned: p. 12-13
    Bell, Clive. The French Impressionists. London, United Kingdom: Phaidon Press, 1978. Reproduced: Fig. 46
    Isaacson, Joel. Claude Monet, Observation and Reflection. Oxford, United Kingdom: Phaidon, 1978. Reproduced: p. 176
    Moffett, Charles S. Monet's Water Lilies. Mount Vernon, NY: Artist's Ltd. Edition, 1978. Reproduced: Pl 6
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 220 archive.org
    Monet, Claude. Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978. Referenced: cat. no. 76, Reproduced
    Gordon, Robert, and Charles F. Stuckey. "Blossoms and Blunders: Monet and the State." Art in America: An Illustrated Magazine 67 (January 1979): 102-117. Reproduced: p. 112, fig. 12
    Stuckey, Charles F. "Blossoms and Blunders: Monet and the State; II." Art in America 67 (May 1979): 109-125. Reproduced: p. 125
    Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1980. Reproduced: p. 221-222
    The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art LXVII. Cleveland: [The Museum] 1980. Reproduced: p. 187; Mentioned: p. 189
    Failing, Patricia. "The Case of the Dismembered Masterpieces." ARTnews 79 (September 1980): 66-78. Reproduced: p. 76-77
    House, John. Monet. Oxford, United Kingdom: Phaidon, 1981. Reproduced: No. 47
    Cowart, Jack. "Impressionist and Post-impressionist Paintings." Bulletin (St. Louis Art Museum) 16, no. 2 (1982): 1-35. Reproduced: p. 23
    Borowitz, Helen O. "The Rembrandt and Monet of Marcel Proust." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art LXX, no. 2 (February, 1983):73-95. Reproduced: p. 88, fig. 14
    Peters, Mike, and Marilyn Jarvis. The World of Cartooning: How Caricatures Develop. Dayton, OH: Landfall Press, 1985. Reproduced: p. 16
    Larson, Dean M. Studying with the Masters: Lessons from Rubens, Velázquez, Turner, Degas, Monet, Sargent, Matisse. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1986. Reproduced: p. 86
    Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 97, no. 4
    Stuckey, Charles F. Waterlilies. New York, NY: H.L. Levin Associates, 1988. Reproduced: p. 83
    Thomson, Belinda, and Michael Howard. Impressionism. London, United Kingdom: Bison Books, 1988. Reproduced: p. 124-125
    Sagner-Düchting, Karin. Claude Monet, 1840-1926: ein Fest für die Augen. Köln,Germany: Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 1990. Reproduced: p. 207
    Strickland, Carol, and John Boswell. The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1992. Reproduced: p. 103
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. Reproduced: p. 166-167
    Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 159
    "1993 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (1994): 143-218. Mentioned: p. 177 www.jstor.org
    Pelfrey, Robert H. Art and Mass Media. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1996. Reproduced: p. 169, fig. 7,8
    Wildenstein, Daniel. Monet. Köln, Germany: Taschen, 1996. Reproduced: vol. 1, p. 436
    Sagner-Duchting, Karin. Claude Monet, 1840-1926: A Feast for the Eyes. Köln, Germany: Benedikt Taschen, 1998. Reporduced: p. 119
    Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico). Maestros del impresionismo. México, D.F.: Istituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1998. Reproduced: p. 59, fig. 14
    D' Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings, Part Four; European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland, OH:The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Reproduced: p. 159
    Wildenstein, Daniel. Monet, or, The Triumph of Impressionism. Köln, Germany: Taschen,1999. Reproduced: p. 436-437.
    May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: p. 56-57, no. 58
    Lemonedes, Heather, Lynn Federle Orr, and David H. Steel. Monet in Normandy. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 2006. Reproduced: p. 178
    Lemonedes, Heather, "FILL THIS", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 47 no. 02, February 2007 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 5 archive.org
    Rey, Jean Dominique, and Denis Rouart. Monet, Water Lilies: The Complete Series. Paris, France: Flammarion, 2008. Reproduced: p. 145
    Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: London, United Kingdom: Scala Books, 2012. Reproduced: p. 302-303
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 298
    Dumas, Ann, William H. Robinson, Clare A. P. Willsdon, Monty Don, James Priest, and Heather Lemonedes. Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. London, United Kingdom : Royal Academy of Arts, 2015. Reproduced: P. 290
    Amiot-Saulnier, Emmanuelle. "Le Jardin de Monet a Matisse." L'Estampille, l'objet d'art 521, (Mar. 2016): 28-35. Reproduced: p. 30
    Kelly, Simon. ""My Four Best Series": Monet's Panorama at the Hotel Biron." In Monet: the Late Years. Shackelford, George T. M., ed., 46-61. Fort Worth, Texas: Kimbell Art Museum; San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, New Haven; London: Distributed by Yale University Press, 2019. Reproduced: P. 48-49,50, 59
    Shackelford, George T. M. Monet: the Late Years. Fort Worth, Texas: Kimbell Art Museum; San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, New Haven; London: Distributed by Yale University Press, 2019. Reproduced: P. 159
    Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. Mentioned: p. 81
    Goldin, Marco. Il Giardino e la Luna: Arte dell'Ottocento dal Romanticismo all'Impressionismo. Milano: La nave di Teseo, 2021. Reproduced: P. 508-509
    Pagé, Suzanne, Angeline Scherf, and Marianne Mathieu. Claude Monet, Joan Mitchell. Paris: Fondation Louis Vuitton; [Paris]: Musée Marmottan Monet, Académie des beaux-arts; Vanves: Hazan, 2022. Reproduced: Cat. no. 50
    Kelly, Simon. "A Dialogue with Monet: Mitchell's Years in Vetheuil." In Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape, edited by Simon Kelly, 13-68. St. Louis, Missouri: Saint Louis Art Museum; Munich, Germany: Hirmer Verlag GmbH, 2023. Mentioned: p. 27; reproduced: p. 31, fig. 12
  • Monet / Mitchell. Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (organizer) (October 5, 2022-February 27, 2023).
    Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 6, 2015-January 5, 2016); Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (January 30-April 20, 2016).
    Monet's Water Lilies. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (April 9-August 7, 2011); Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (October 2, 2011-January 22, 2012).
    Monet in Normandy. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 18-May 28, 2007).
    Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).
    CMA Highlights. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 21-September 11, 2005).
    Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).
    The Monet Triptych: Water Lilies. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (co-organizer) (April 5-June 15, 1979); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 18, 1979-February 17, 1980); Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (co-organizer) (April 1-September 1, 1980).
    Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (co-organizer) (April 22-July 9, 1978); Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (co-organizer) (August 1-October 8, 1978).
    Color and Field, 1890 - 1970. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (September 15-November 1, 1970); Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH (November 20, 1970-January 10, 1971); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 3-March 14, 1971).
    Fifty Years of Modern Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 15-July 31, 1966).
    Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).
    Year in Review - Nineteen Hundred Sixty. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 30, 1960-January 1, 1961).
    Paths of Abstract Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 5-November 13, 1960).
    Essence of Nations. Valley House Gallery, Dallas, TX (November 1–14, 1959).
    Claude Monet. City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN (1957).
  • {{cite web|title=Water Lilies (Agapanthus)|url=false|author=Claude Monet|year=c. 1915–26|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1960.81