Description
| Title: | Water Lilies I |
| Other titles: | Nymphéas · Water-Lilies, Clouds |
| Painter: | Claude Monet (1840–1926) |
| Year painted: | 1903 |
| Original size: | 100 cm x 73 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Located at: | Not recorded in any public collection; catalogued as Wildenstein 1656 |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes or made to measure |
Water Lilies I is a hand-painted copy of Monet’s canvas of 1903: a dark band of bank foliage along the top, a violet-blue surface below in which two white clouds are reflected, and bands of lily pads running across the middle. In the catalogue of Monet’s works it carries the number 1656 and measures 100 x 73 cm. We paint it in eight sizes or to your own measurement, with a photograph of the finished work sent for approval before dispatch.
Water Lilies I – Claude Monet
What is shown?
A dark band of bank foliage runs the full width along the top edge; it is densest at the upper right, where the same mass also comes down the right-hand side. Below it the olive-green reflection of that foliage fills the upper half of the water, painted in short vertical touches. The lower half of the surface is violet-blue, and in it lie two large soft reflections of white cumulus, one left of centre and one right. Bands of lily pads cross the surface: one over the upper third with pale yellow flowers, a second to the right of centre, and the largest group low and central, where the flowers are pink-red. In the bottom left corner a separate little group of pads carries two white flowers. The canvas is signed at the lower right. This hand-painted oil painting copies a work with no horizon and no water’s edge: the surface, and what can be seen in it.
Where is the sky?
The scene is seen steeply from above, so there is no horizon and no sky on the canvas — and yet the clouds are there, only inverted. That exchange is the subject: the lightest thing does not hang at the top but lies at the bottom, and the darkest is not in the distance but along the upper edge. Depth is inverted, and the surface becomes a plane and a window at once. An impressionist painting of this kind is built from two opposing strokes: short vertical ones for the reflection of the foliage and broad horizontal ones for the clouds. The lily pads are the third kind — short flat patches that lie on both the others and tie them together. Monet later stretched this idea across whole walls: the Nymphéas rooms at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.
This canvas in the catalogue
In the catalogue of Monet’s works it is entered under the number 1656, dated 1903 and measured at 100 x 73 cm, oil on canvas, from the group the painter himself called water landscapes. We recognise it by four things at once: the dark band of foliage comes down the right-hand edge, there are two clouds and not one, the band of pads at the upper right carries yellow flowers, and two white flowers stand alone in the bottom left corner. Canvases from this group are rarely signed with a year, so it is the catalogue that places it in time — the record for this canvas, carrying its catalogue number 1656.
The limits of the record
Where it is today is not publicly recorded. The catalogue lists the work but no collection holding it, so you will find neither a museum name nor an inventory number in the table — neither exists in any publicly available record. The figures come from the catalogue and from nowhere else.
Other water paintings by Monet in our range
Watch the names: without the numeral, Water Lilies is a different work, square and different in light. The same subject in a blue key we sell as Blue Water Lilies. The same pond under another title is The Water Lily Pond. And when there is architecture in the scene it is The Water Lily Pond (Japanese Bridge). All four are the same pond at Giverny seen differently — that is what separates them, not the title.
How is our hand-painted version made?
With this subject the order is everything. The painter lays the violet-blue ground of the water first, then drags the olive reflection of the foliage into the upper half wet-in-wet, and only when that holds do the clouds go on — broad, soft, without an edge, because a reflected cloud has no outline. The lily pads come last, as flat patches that must lie ON the water and not in it. Put them on too early and you get a pattern instead of a surface. An oil painting reproduction of this subject is therefore a test of patience: it is finished in a single moment, when the last patch is in place, and until then it looks unfinished.
Which size for which wall?
Short answer: 120 x 90 cm above a sofa, 70 x 50 cm for a smaller wall, 150 x 110 cm for a large open one. The original measures 100 x 73 cm, which is close to our 105 x 75 cm if you want to keep the original’s proportion. A painting for living room walls looks up about two thirds of the width of the sofa. This is impressionist wall art that is wide and quiet, with no focal point, so it does better where it is seen close to — in a hallway, beside a bed, over a desk — than on a wall you only see from the far side of the room.
How high to hang the painting: put the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor. Because the subject is wide and quiet it takes a lower placing well — above a low chest it reads better than high on an empty wall.
Made to measure, stretcher and frame
If none of the eight sizes suits, we paint to measure — send the width and the height and we will quote a price and a lead time. The canvas painting is stretched over a wooden stretcher and the edges are painted, so it does not look unfinished without a frame. With this subject a narrow dark moulding helps, because it closes a surface that would otherwise look cut off; a broad gilt frame does not suit it, because the subject has no centre for a frame to emphasise.
Delivery and guarantee
We ship to sixteen countries in the European Union, among them Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Italy and Hungary, wrapped in protective film and packed in a rigid box. Before dispatch we send a photograph of the finished work; if something on it is wrong, it is corrected before the piece leaves the workshop. Lead time is longer at the large sizes. You will find our other Monet reproduction subjects in the Claude Monet gallery, and we write about painting and about choosing a subject on the blog.
If the painting is a gift and you are unsure of the size, there is a gift voucher: the recipient chooses the size and the subject.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original today?
We do not know and we do not guess. No publicly available record names a collection holding it, so the table gives neither a museum nor an inventory number.
What do Monet’s Water Lilies mean?
Water, sky and flowers merge into one surface. They are often read as a place of calm and reflection; Monet himself wanted the large canvases to offer a refuge of peaceful meditation.
Why did Monet paint water lilies?
Because the pond was his own creation: from 1899 until his death in 1926 he painted the water garden at Giverny about 250 times, chasing the changing light on the water.
How many Water Lilies did Monet paint?
Around 250 canvases of his water garden, from 1899 until his death in 1926, including the large panels in the Orangerie in Paris.
Where did Monet paint the water lilies?
In his water garden at Giverny in Normandy, beside the pond he had dug across the road from his house.
Is the original for sale, and what is it worth?
No. The original is in a museum collection and is not for sale, so it has no market price. Monet’s major canvases are among the most expensive paintings ever sold at auction: one of his Haystacks fetched 110.7 million dollars in 2019.
- Hand-painted. Oil on canvas, no print and nothing applied by machine.
- Eight sizes or made to measure. From 50 x 35 to 150 x 110 cm, including 105 x 75 cm.
- A photograph before dispatch. You see the work finished before it leaves the workshop.
- Figures from the catalogue. Year, size and technique are given as the catalogue of Monet’s works records them under number 1656.
