Collection 1880s–1940s

515

Claude Monet’s Water Lilies

Ongoing

MoMA

Claude Monet. Water Lilies. 1914–26. Oil on canvas, three panels, each 6' 6 3/4" × 13' 11 1/4" (200 × 424.8 cm), overall 6' 6 3/4" × 41' 10 3/8" (200 × 1276 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund
  • MoMA, Floor 5, 515 The David Geffen Wing

In 1915 Claude Monet built a large studio near his house in Giverny, a town northwest of Paris, for the creation of what he would call his grandes décorations. These works depict the elaborate lily pond and gardens that Monet had created on his property. He captured this subject matter in more than 40 large-scale panels and scores of smaller related canvases between 1914 and 1926, the year of his death.

In 1955 The Museum of Modern Art became the first museum in the United States to acquire one of the large-scale panels. MoMA curators’ interest in Monet at that time had much to do with currents in contemporary art: the grand scale and allover compositions of Abstract Expressionist paintings by artists such as Jackson Pollock made Monet’s large paintings newly relevant. Since then the Water Lilies have held a cherished position in the Museum, affirming Monet’s conviction that art can provide a respite from an increasingly urban, commercialized, and technological world.

Organized by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, with Lydia Mullin, Charlotte Barat and Jennifer Harris, Curatorial Assistants, Department of Painting and Sculpture.

3 works online

Support for the exhibition is provided by the Annual Exhibition Fund. Leadership contributions to the Annual Exhibition Fund, in support of the Museum’s collection and collection exhibitions, are generously provided by Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, the Sandra and Tony Tamer Exhibition Fund, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Alice and Tom Tisch, the Marella and Giovanni Agnelli Fund for Exhibitions, The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Eva and Glenn Dubin, Mimi Haas, The David Rockefeller Council, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz, Kenneth C. Griffin, The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, and Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder. Major funding is provided by The Sundheim Family Foundation.

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