Water Lily Pond by Monet in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, January 2018

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 Number: 61.959

Collections: Europe

Classifications: Paintings


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.

Inscriptions: Lower left: Claude Monet 1900

Provenance: December 1900, sold by the artist by Léonce Rosenberg (b. 1877 - d. 1947), Paris [see note 1]. 1923, Léon Orosdi, Paris [see note 2]; May 25, 1923, posthumous Orosdi sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 41, to Durand-Ruel, Paris (stock no. 12162); November 27, 1926, sold by Durand-Ruel to Alvan Tufts Fuller (b. 1878 - d. 1958), Boston [see note 3]; 1959, 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] See Daniel Wildenstein, "Monet: Catalogue Raisonné," vol. 4 (1996), p. 731, cat. no. 1630.

[2] According to a letter from Durand-Ruel, Paris, to the MFA (1962; in MFA curatorial file), Orosdi purchased almost all of his paintings from Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, although it cannot be confirmed that he acquired this painting from that gallery.

[3] Information about Durand-Ruel's transactions is taken from a letter from Durand-Ruel to the MFA (as above, n. 2). Durand-Ruel states that this painting was sold to Mr. 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.


Text from: collections.mfa.org/objects/33697/the-water-lily-pond