Water Lilies, 1906
Water Lilies, 1906
No bank. No sky. Only the pond’s skin — pads, reflected trees, and a soft channel of water between two lily clusters. Monet’s Water Lilies, 1906, at the Art Institute of Chicago, is a nearly square field of blues, olives, and silver flickers: Impressionism turned into a still surface you can almost lean into.
The surface
By 1906 Monet had stopped staging the Japanese bridge as the hero. The subject is the water itself — light changing across it, pads drifting at lower left and upper right, a watery path that never quite becomes a horizon. Oil on canvas, about 35⅜ × 37 inches (89.9 × 94.1 cm). He kept reworking these surfaces; he called them an obsession. Up close the color breaks into strokes. From a step back it becomes one breath of pond.
Blues, greens, a little pink
Cool water blues, olive pads, pale blossom notes, and the quick silver of reflected sky. Spring and summer live in the same square — not a garden path you walk down, but a garden held in the water. Our archival matte print keeps that soft glare-free so the blues stay quiet on the wall.
Which Water Lilies
This is the 1906 open-water painting in Chicago (Ryerson Collection). Not the Japanese bridge views, not the Orangerie murals, not MoMA’s triptych. The bridge is a different canvas; this one keeps you on the surface.
Sizes vs the original
The Chicago canvas is smaller than many expect — roughly a meter on the long side. Our squares stay close to how it hangs:
- 12×12 about a third of the painting’s height — desk, shelf, small wall
- 20×20 about half — the default for most rooms
- 30×30 close to three-quarters — when the wall can take a square of color at arm’s length
Paper & ship
Archival matte fine art paper, no bleed — lily clusters at the edges stay intact. Made to order, rolled in a tube. Pale wood or white frames keep a museum-shop quiet. Or leave the sheet flat until the wall is ready.
How it got to Chicago
Shown at Durand-Ruel in 1909 as part of “Série 1906.” Sold that year to Henri Bernstein. Martin A. Ryerson bought it in New York in 1914. Bequeathed to the Art Institute in 1933. Cover image for Monet and Chicago (2020–21).
Quick answers
Is this the Orangerie Water Lilies? No — those are the late mural panels in Paris. This is a single 1906 easel painting in Chicago.
Why nearly square? Monet’s pond canvases from this group sit close to square. Our 12 / 20 / 30 inch squares follow that format instead of forcing a poster crop.
Where is the original? Art Institute of Chicago, accession 1933.1157, often Gallery 243.
Claude Monet · Water Lilies, 1906 · Art Institute of Chicago · 1933.1157
Into the pond
Look into the surface
Four close looks into the pond — the watery path, the pads, the reflected trees, the 1906 signature. Scroll gently; each frame is a different breath of the surface.
Lily clusters at lower left and upper right leave a channel of open water — Monet’s near-square composition without a horizon.
Olive and silver flickers on the pads. Up close the surface is all brush, not a flat poster color.
What looks like sky is reflection. The bank never enters the frame — only what the pond holds.
Lower right: Claude Monet 1906. The signature hotspot on the hero points here.
Claude Monet · Water Lilies, 1906 · Art Institute of Chicago