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Water Lilies

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
1907

Medium/Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 96.8 x 98.4 cm (38 1/8 x 38 3/4 in.)
Credit Line Bequest of Alexander Cochrane
Accession Number19.170
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Beginning in 1903, Monet embarked on a series of paintings depicting his water garden at Giverny, its lily pads and endless play of reflections. Inspired by Japanese prints, he hoped to evoke “presence through shadow and the whole through the part”—suggesting the surrounding banks, trees, and sky, though never representing them directly. In 1909 Monet exhibited forty-eight of these “water landscapes” at his dealer’s gallery in Paris, among them this canvas.

InscriptionsLower right: Claude Monet 1907
ProvenanceJune 1909, sold by the artist to Bernheim-Jeune and Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York; December 1909, sold by Durand-Ruel to Alexander Cochrane (b. 1840 - d. 1919), Boston; 1919, bequest of Alexander Cochrane to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 3, 1919)