By Claude Monet (1840-1926), The Water Lily Pond (Le bassin aux nymphéas), oil on canvas, 39 3⁄8 x 78 7⁄8 in. (100.1 x 200.6 cm), ca. 1917-1919, photo: Christie’s New York, 9 Nov 2023. #art #arthistory #painting #oilpainting #impressionism

From the lot essay: “Widely hailed as landmarks of late Impressionism, the paintings that Claude Monet made of his famed gardens at Giverny constitute some of the most innovative and influential works of his entire oeuvre. During the last twenty-five years of his life, Monet devoted himself almost single-mindedly to depicting the flowing planes of flowers, towering willow trees and the expansive lily-pond that he had fashioned within the grounds, producing an astonishingly complex and diverse group of canvases that capture the unique atmosphere of the artist’s own arcadia. Absorbing and expressionistic, with an extraordinary play of impasto and vibrant brushwork, Le bassin aux nymphéas is a key example from this famed series of works dedicated to the water lilies, executed on a large-scale canvas that stretches over two meters across. At once searingly modern and timeless, the painting focuses on the play of silvery light and the intricate dance of reflections across the lily-pond, conveying a vivid sense of the undulations of the surface of the water and the delicate bobbing flowers, as they shift and change in response to their surroundings.”