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The Water Lily Pond
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
1900
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
90.2 x 92.7 cm (35 1/2 x 36 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Given in memory of Governor Alvan T. Fuller by the Fuller Foundation
Accession Number61.959
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
In 1883, Monet settled in the village of Giverny, about forty miles from Paris, and purchased a house there in 1890. Shortly thereafter, he acquired an additional plot of land, where he constructed a picturesque water garden. A Japanese bridge spanned the pond at its narrowest point. This is among the first of Monet's paintings to emphasize the reflections of the bank and the sky on the flat surface of the water.
InscriptionsLower left: Claude Monet 1900
Provenance1900, sold by the artist to Léonce Rosenberg (dealer; b. 1877 – d. 1947), Paris [see note 1]. By 1922, Léon Orosdi (b. 1855 – d. 1922), Paris [see note 2]; May 25, 1923, posthumous Orosdi sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 41, to Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York (stock no. 12162); 1926, sold by Durand-Ruel to Alvan Tufts Fuller (b. 1878 – d. 1958), Boston [see note 3]; 1959 , transferred to the Alvan T. Fuller Foundation, Inc., Boston; 1961, gift of the Alvan T. Fuller Foundation to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 20, 1961)
NOTES:
[1] According to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 4, 1996, Cologne, p. 731, cat. no. 1630.
[2] According to a 1962 letter from Durand-Ruel to the MFA, Léon Orosdi purchased almost all of his paintings from Bernheim-Jeune, Paris.
[3] Information about Durand-Ruel's transactions is taken from a letter from Durand-Ruel to the MFA (see above, n. 2). Durand-Ruel states that this painting was sold to Alvan T. Fuller on November 27, 1927; however, he first lent it to the MFA on January 7 of that year. It is possible that the year of the sale was written incorrectly in the letter.
NOTES:
[1] According to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 4, 1996, Cologne, p. 731, cat. no. 1630.
[2] According to a 1962 letter from Durand-Ruel to the MFA, Léon Orosdi purchased almost all of his paintings from Bernheim-Jeune, Paris.
[3] Information about Durand-Ruel's transactions is taken from a letter from Durand-Ruel to the MFA (see above, n. 2). Durand-Ruel states that this painting was sold to Alvan T. Fuller on November 27, 1927; however, he first lent it to the MFA on January 7 of that year. It is possible that the year of the sale was written incorrectly in the letter.