Art by Claude Monet

Claude Monet

Le Bassin aux Nymphéas

Oil on canvas

38 3/8 by 78 1/8 in.

Painted in 1917-19.

The water lily pond was the defining motif of the last two-and-a-half decades of Claude Monet's life. How this beautiful and visually dynamic subject came to be the focus of Claude Monet's artistic output can be traced back to 1883, when the artist moved to Giverny, where he rented a house with a large garden. Thanks to his ever-increasing financial success, he was able to buy the property outright in the early 1890s and eventually purchased a large adjacent plot of land. It was here in 1893 that he began to construct his famous water gardens and lily pond, fed by water from a nearby river.

Claude Monet's Le Bassin aux Nymphéas detail

During 1901-02, Claude Monet enlarged the pond, replanted the edges with bamboo, rhododendron, Japanese apple and cherry trees. Towards the end of his life, he told a visitor to his studio "It took me some time to understand my water lilies. I planted them purely for pleasure; I grew them with no thought of painting them. A landscape takes more than a day to get under your skin. And then, all at once, I had the revelation - how wonderful my pond was - and reached for my palette. I've hardly had any other subject since that moment"

Claude Monet's Le Bassin aux Nymphéas detail

The above work will be offered for sale at:

Sotheby's New York

Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale

November 2nd 2010

Estimate: $20,000,00 - $30,000,000