Monet's Japanese Bridge: one bridge, eighteen pictures

Short answer (updated 27 Oct 2026, pass 5): The painting people call Monet's "Japanese Bridge" in Chicago is catalogued by the Art Institute of Chicago as Water Lily Pond, 1900. It's one of 18 similar versions of the footbridge motif that Monet painted in 1899–1900, so "the Japanese Bridge" is a series, not a single picture. The bridge, the pond and the plantings were all Monet's own work at Giverny. Ours is the AIC canvas: oil, 89.8 × 101 cm, accession 1933.441. It isn't the Met's 1899 Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, and it isn't our 1906 Water Lilies, which has no bridge. (Art Institute of Chicago; The Met)

The fact gap: one bridge, eighteen pictures

Three sibling bridges, side by side

All four crop the bridge at the frame. Our 1900 canvas is the only one of the four from the second year.

Three details worth looking at

1. The arch runs off both edges. The bridge is cut by the frame on both sides, so you never see where it lands. It reads as a band across the picture, not a structure you could walk onto. (Our reading)
2. Reflections between the pads. The dark gaps in the water are full of mirrored willow and reeds. The AIC says this mingling is what ties the 18 versions together. (AIC; our reading)
3. No sky. The canvas is all bridge, foliage and water. The NGA notes the same absence of sky in its 1899 version. (Our reading; NGA)

Context

• Monet bought his Giverny property and three years later, in 1893, began making the pond. He added both exotic and local plants, including the water lilies. The garden became one of his main subjects for the rest of his life. (AIC)
• The garden and the bridge, from the other museums. The National Gallery in London says Monet wanted the water garden "both for the pleasure of the eye and for the purpose of having subjects to paint." It also says he built the humpback bridge "inspired by examples seen in Japanese prints," and that he restocked the pond with colourful hybrid lilies from the grower Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac. The NGA dates the bridge to 1895 and says Monet won permission to divert water from the Epte despite local objections. The National Gallery puts the water garden at "some 250 paintings" over his later career. (National Gallery, London; NGA)
• The National Gallery calls the bridge series "a turning point." After it, Monet painted the pond from ever closer, and in later pictures he dropped the banks and the bridge to show only water, reflections and lilies. That is the route to our 1906 Water Lilies and, finally, to the Orangerie murals. (National Gallery, London)
• Monet sold this canvas to Léonce Rosenberg in Paris in December 1900. It later passed through the Prince de Wagram and Durand-Ruel in Paris and New York to Arthur Meeker of Chicago in 1915. Annie Swan Coburn bequeathed it to the Art Institute in 1933. (AIC provenance)
• The earliest exhibition the AIC lists is Durand-Ruel in New York, Paintings by Claude Monet, 1–16 February 1915 (cat. 8), the year it went to Meeker. (AIC exhibition history)
• Since then it has toured widely: Monet in the '90s: The Series Paintings (Boston, Chicago, London, 1990, cat. 91), Monet in the 20th Century (Boston, London, Zurich, 1998–99, cat. 1), the Orangerie's Le cycle des "Nymphéas" (Paris, 1999, cat. 6), Monet and Chicago (2020–21, cat. 75), and a 2025–26 garden-cultures tour in Beijing, Suzhou, Ningbo and Hong Kong that closed 29 July 2026. (AIC exhibition history)
• The Art Institute also covers it in its free online scholarly catalogue, Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago (2014). The AIC's own record lists it there as cat. 37. We read the entry itself in an Internet Archive copy (2015); its findings are below. (AIC publication history; AIC 2014, cat. 37)
• It was reproduced in Monet's lifetime. Lucien Descaves illustrated it in "Chez Claude Monet" (Paris-Magazine, 25 Aug. 1920), and Gustave Geffroy did the same in L'art et les artistes (Nov. 1920). Wildenstein's 1985 entry also cites Monet letters 1580 and 1581 about it. (AIC publication history)
• The Art Institute showed it in its 1932 exhibition of the Mrs. L. L. Coburn collection (cat. 25). (AIC publication history)
• The painting is on view at the Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 243. (AIC, checked 27 Oct 2026)

What the Art Institute's catalogue found

The Art Institute's 2014 catalogue entry (cat. 37, essay by Jill Shaw) adds details that the wall label does not give. (AIC 2014, cat. 37, Internet Archive copy)

• The pond was built to be painted. Monet bought the land across the railway tracks in February 1893 and had his permits by July. In his application to the Eure prefect he called the water garden "agreeable and for the pleasure of the eyes", and he also meant to paint it.
• Twelve in 1899, six in 1900. The 1899 paintings face the bridge head-on. The six from 1900, Chicago's among them, are painted from further left and further back, so the bridge looks lopsided and flatter, with more of the near bank in view.
• Thin washes left showing. Monet first laid in the picture with thin washes of deep red, brown and green. In the water he left the off-white ground and those washes exposed, letting light off the ground stand for the water's transparency. X-rays show he painted out some foliage under the bridge.
• Same canvas bolt as the Stacks of Wheat. The linen's thread pattern matches seven other Monets at the Art Institute, including three Stacks of Wheat and Branch of the Seine near Giverny (Mist). That suggests the canvases were cut from one roll of fabric.
• Finished, then sold, not shown. It was not among the twelve pond paintings in Durand-Ruel's late-1900 show. Monet signed and dated it ("Claude Monet 1900", upper left, in dark red) and sold it to Léonce Rosenberg around that time.
• Critics were split. Charles Saunier of La revue blanche wrote that the series showed "the secret design of a cinematographer who noted the color, not the action".

Which print

Our print reproduces the 1900 AIC canvas (1933.441), not the Met's 1899 vertical version or a blend of the series. The AIC marks this image public domain and releases it under CC0. It doesn't endorse this shop. The print keeps the canvas's true near-square 8:9 shape. → Monet, Water Lily Pond, Japanese Bridge (1900) fine art print

Also from the dossier shelf:

• Water Lilies, 1906: the same pond six years later, seen from above without the bridge.
• The Great Wave: another famous image that exists in more than one version.

FAQ

Where is this painting? The Art Institute of Chicago, accession 1933.441 (Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection).

How big is it? 89.8 × 101 cm (35⅜ × 39¾ in.), a little wider than it is tall.

How many Japanese bridge paintings are there? The AIC counts 18 similar versions from 1899–1900. The NGA says the first group, painted in 1899, was 12 views.

Was the bridge inspired by Japanese prints? The National Gallery, London says so, and so does the NGA, which calls the garden "Asian-influenced."

Is it the same as the Met's bridge painting? No. The Met's Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies is dated 1899 and is a vertical canvas, 92.7 × 73.7 cm.

Is it signed and dated? Yes, upper left: "Claude Monet / 1900." (AIC)

What is its catalogue raisonné number? Wildenstein 1628. (AIC publication history)

Has it left Chicago? Often on loan: Paris 1999, London 1990 and 1999, and China and Hong Kong in 2025–26. (AIC)

Was it published while Monet was alive? Yes. It was illustrated in two Paris articles in 1920, six years before he died. (AIC publication history)

Is the image public domain? Yes. Monet died in 1926, and the Art Institute of Chicago marks this image public domain (CC0). No museum endorses this shop.

Did Monet ever exhibit this exact canvas in 1900? No. According to the Art Institute's catalogue, it was not among the twelve pond paintings in Durand-Ruel's late-1900 show. Monet sold it to Léonce Rosenberg around that time. (AIC 2014, cat. 37)

Sources

• Art Institute of Chicago — Claude Monet, Water Lily Pond, 1900 (1933.441): description, dimensions, credit line, gallery
• Art Institute of Chicago API — artwork 87088: provenance, inscription, exhibition and publication history (incl. Wildenstein 1628), public-domain flag
• Art Institute of Chicago — Monet Paintings and Drawings at the AIC (2014), cat. 37: Water Lily Pond, 1900 by Jill Shaw, with Technical Report (Internet Archive copy of the entry text, captured 4 March 2015)
• National Gallery of Art, Washington — Monet, The Japanese Footbridge, 1899 (1992.9.1): 12 views of 1899, signature, provenance
• NGA highlight — The Japanese Footbridge (bridge 1895, Epte, Durand-Ruel 1900)
• National Gallery, London — Monet, The Water-Lily Pond, 1899 (NG4240)
• National Gallery, London on Google Arts & Culture — in-painting tour of NG4240 (signature colour, 18 canvases)
• The Met — Claude Monet, Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, 1899 (29.100.113)
• Art Institute of Chicago — Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1906 (1933.1157)

Quotations are short and attributed. Everything else is paraphrased.