Claude Monet, Water Lilies, ca. 1915–1926

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doi: 10.37764/78973.5.632
Artist	Claude Monet, French, 1840–1926
Title	Water Lilies
Object Date	ca. 1915–1926
Alternate and Variant Titles	Nymphéas; The Agapanthus Triptych; Les Grandes Décorations; “large machines”
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions (Unframed)	79 x 167 3/4 in. (200.7 x 426.9 cm)
Signature	Estate stamp, lower left corner: Claude Monet
Credit Line	The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 57-26

Catalogue Entry

curatorial

Citation

Chicago:

Simon Kelly, “Claude Monet, Water Lilies, ca. 1915–1926,” catalogue entry in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.632.5407.

MLA:

Kelly, Simon. “Claude Monet, Water Lilies, ca. 1915–1926,” catalogue entry. French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025. doi: 10.37764/78973.5.632.5407.

Water Lilies is the right-hand panel of a triptych, titled Agapanthus by the artist after the flowers originally visible in the left-hand panel (Fig. 1). The central panel is at the Saint Louis Art Museum and the left-hand panel at the Cleveland Museum of Art.¹See Simon Kelly, Monet’s Water Lilies: The Agapanthus Triptych, exh. cat. (Saint Louis: Saint Louis Art Museum, 2011). The picture forms part of a body of forty-one large-scale panels that represents the culmination of Claude Monet’s painterly practice, summing up his lifelong fascination with the rendering of water and light effects.²For an overview of these works, see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné; Werkverzeichnis, vol. 4, Nos. 1596–1983 et Les Grandes Décorations* (Cologne: Taschen, 1996), 944–79; the three panels are W. nos. 1975, 1976, and 1977. See also Pierre Georgel, *Monet: Le cycle des Nymphéas*, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1999). For an examination of the left-hand panel, see Roger Diederen in Louise d’Argencourt, *European Paintings of the Nineteenth Century* (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999), 2:458–62. Today, twenty-two of these panels are installed in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.³With the exception of Agapanthus, the only other triptych in the United States is Water Lilies (1914–26) at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Other notable examples of Monet’s late panels are The Water Lily Pond in the Evening diptych (1916/1922; Kunsthaus Zürich) and Water Lilies (after 1916; National Gallery, London).

Fig. 1. Claude Monet, *Agapanthus*, ca. 1915–26, oil on canvas, 79 1/4 x 502 7/8 in. (201.3 x 1277.3 cm) overall, composite image of panels now at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Water Lilies depicts the surface of the pond that Monet constructed at his home in Giverny in 1893 and subsequently tripled in size in 1901. The painting is divided broadly into horizontal bands, with the upper third dominated by blue and violet tonalities and the lower two-thirds by yellow-green. Monet’s complex surface defies easy reading, but the upper section seems to show the reflection of the sky, while the lower section suggests the pond’s depths animated by swaying, grassy fronds. Scattered across the canvas are rafts of water lilies, with a multicolored bloom in yellow, white, pink, and red forming a color accent at the upper right. Monet chose not to include a horizon line, creating an overall sense of flatness and abstraction that signaled a break with earlier schools of landscape painting. The artist used slashing and crisscrossing brushstrokes most evidently in the rendering of his lily pads. His paint application retains a freshness and vibrance that belie the fact that the canvas was the subject of extensive revisions over the course of almost a decade. Water Lilies exemplifies Monet’s late process of obsessive reworking that departs from the persona of the spontaneous plein-airen plein air (adjective: plein-air): French for “outdoors.” The term is used to describe the act of painting quickly outside rather than in a studio. painter that the artist himself cultivated.

Fig. 2. Claude Monet, *Water Lilies, Harmony in Blue*, 1914–17, oil on canvas, 78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in. (200 x 200 cm), Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris. Photo: Bridgeman Images

In January 1915, Monet wrote that he was working on his large-scale panels: “I’m pursuing my idea of grande décoration. It’s really an enormous task that I’ve undertaken, especially at my age, but I am not unhopeful of achieving it if I stay healthy.”⁴“Je poursuis mon idée de grande décoration. C’est une bien grosse chose que j’aie entreprise, surtout à mon âge, mais je ne désespère pas d’y arriver, si je conserve la santé.” Monet to Raymond Koechlin, January 15, 1915, in Georgel, Monet, 222. All translations are by Simon Kelly, unless otherwise noted. The artist generally described his panels in the plural thereafter as his “grandes décorations.” In order to facilitate his work on such large paintings, Monet initiated construction of a new, expansive studio at Giverny, completed in the spring of 1916.⁵See François Thiébault-Sisson, “Un nouveau musée parisien: Les nymphéas de Claude Monet à l’Orangerie de Tuileries,” Revue de l’art ancient et moderne 52 (June 1927): 49. At some point around this time, he embarked on the Agapanthus triptych. The right-hand side of Water Lilies was based on a large study that Monet probably produced outdoors, looking down into his Giverny pond (Fig. 2). This study appears in a photograph of Monet’s new studio from around 1920, where it is visible in front of the Nelson-Atkins panel (Fig. 3). Also pictured are Monet and his close friend Georges Clemenceau, the two-time prime minister of France; they stand in front of the other two panels of the Agapanthus triptych. Monet’s richly colored study includes several water lily blooms in pink, yellow, red, and white as well as twisting stems emerging from crimson-red depths. At first, Monet very closely translated the configuration of lily pads and blooms into the composition of the Nelson-Atkins panel, as is evident from radiographsX-ray radiography (also referred to as x-radiography or radiography): Radiography is an examination tool analogous to the use of X-rays in medicine whereby denser components of a painted composition can be recorded as an inverted shadow image cast on film or a digital X-ray imaging plate from a source such as an X-ray tube. The method has been used for more than a century and is most effective with dense pigments incorporating metallic elements such as lead or zinc. It can reveal artist changes, underlying compositions, and information concerning the artwork’s construction and condition. The resulting image is called an x-radiograph or radiograph. It differs from the uses of X-ray spectrometry in being dependent on the density of the paint to absorb X-rays before they reach the film or image plate and being non-specific as to which elements are responsible for the resulting shadow image..⁶See technical notes by Mary Schafer, NAMA paintings conservator, June 21, 2010, NAMA conservation files. He also appears to have initially transferred the intense colors of his study into the Nelson-Atkins panel.

Fig. 3. Photographer Unknown, *Claude Monet and Georges Clemenceau in the large studio at Giverny*, ca. 1920, photograph. © Collection Philippe Piguet, Paris

Monet worked on Water Lilies in the midst of World War I. The railroad passed through his property at Giverny, and he saw young soldiers being transported to the front lines, only thirty miles away, and may even have heard the guns firing there. His son, Michel, fought at the battle of Verdun in 1916, in which more than two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers perished. On September 11, 1916, he wrote that Michel had survived “three terrible weeks” of conflict.⁷Monet to Gustave Geffroy, September 11, 1916, in Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné (Lausanne: Bibliothéque des Arts, 1986), 4:394, letter 2193. Within this context, Water Lilies can be seen as affirming the regenerative power of nature in the face of such carnage and slaughter. As early as 1909, Monet had envisaged his Water Lilies works as inspiring meditative reflection, offering “a refuge of peaceful meditation”—a kind of “flowering aquarium”—amid the turmoil and the problems of everyday life.⁸Roger Marx, “Les Nymphéas de M. Claude Monet,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 4, no. 1 (June 1909): 529. In 1918, Monet provided further insight into his motivation for painting the Water Lilies series when he declared:

The water flowers are far from being the whole spectacle; indeed, they are only its accompaniment. The basic element of the motif is the mirror of water, whose appearance changes at every instant because of the way bits of the sky are reflected in it, giving it life and movement. The passing cloud, the fresh breeze, the threat or arrival of a rainstorm, the sudden fierce gust of wind, the fading or suddenly refulgent light—all these things, unnoticed by the untutored eye, create changes in color and alter the surface of the water.⁹“Les fleurs d’eau sont loin d’être tout le spectacle; elles n’en sont, à vrai dire, que l’accompagnement. L’essentiel du motif est le miroir d’eau dont l’aspect, à tout instant, se modifie grâce aux pans de ciel qui s’y reflètent, et qui y répandent la vie et le mouvement. Le nuage qui passe, la brise qui fraîchit, le grain qui menace et qui tombe, le vent qui soufflé et s’abat brusquement, la lumière qui décroit et qui renait, autant de causes, insaisissables pour l’œil des profanes, qui transforment la teinte et défigurent les plans de l’eau.” See Thiébault-Sisson, “Nouveau musée parisien,” 44; translated in Charles F. Stuckey, ed., Monet: A Retrospective (New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1985), 289.

Monet’s fascination with water can be traced back to his upbringing on the Normandy coast and to his early marine paintings; he had first made his name at the Paris SalonSalon, the: Exhibitions organized by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture) and its successor the Academy of Fine Arts (Académie des Beaux Arts), which took place in Paris from 1667 onward. of 1865 as a painter of the sea. But Monet, an accomplished gardener, was just as interested in the water lily blooms on his pond. He subscribed to many horticultural journals and corresponded with Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac, a horticulturalist who created a wide range of exotically colored hybrid water lilies at his nursery in Bordeaux. Monet visited this nursery in 1904 and was invested in the choice of blooms for his garden. His correspondence with Latour-Marliac reveals that he ordered a range of hybrid water lily blooms (as well as lotuses) in 1894, 1901, and 1904.¹⁰See “Ce que Monet nous a commandé,” Latour-Marliac website (http://www.latour-marliac.com), via Internet Archive Wayback Machine, captured February 13, 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20180213073814/http://latour-marliac.com/fr/content/category/4-histoire. For Monet as a gardener, see William H. Robinson et al., Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2015). See bills of delivery from Latour-Marliac to Monet, May 15, 1894, and May 27, 1904, and a reminder, November 4, 1908, transcribed in Christoph Becker, ed., Monet’s Garden (Zurich: Hatje Cantz, 2004), 133–38.

Monet included the Agapanthus triptych in the group of works that he described as his “four best series.”¹¹“Je lègue mes quatre meilleures series à l’État français, lequel n’en fera rien!” (I am leaving my four best series to the French State, which will do nothing about it!) Quoted in [Duc Édouard de] Trévise, “Le Pèlerinage de Giverny,” La Revue de l’art ancien et modern 51, no. 282 (January 1927): 131. He planned to give these to the French State, following a meeting in the fall of 1920 with the French minister of fine arts, Paul Léon. Monet wanted to install these series—twelve panels in total—in an Art Nouveau-inspired building designed by Louis-Bernard Bonnier (1856–1946) and built on the grounds of the Hôtel Biron in Paris, which had just opened as a museum for the work of Auguste Rodin (1840–1917).¹²See Simon Kelly, ‘“My four best series’: Monet’s Panorama at the Hôtel Biron,” in George T. M. Shackelford, ed., Monet: The Late Years, exh. cat. (Fort Worth: Kimbell Art Museum, 2019), 46–61. Monet’s panels were to be placed in a naturally lit, circular space with the warm yellows of Agapanthus opposite a triptych titled Clouds, offsetting its cooler blues (Fig. 4). The space would also contain the four-panel Three Willows (1914–1926) and the diptych Green Reflections (1914–1926; Musée de l’Orangerie).¹³Three Willows was divided by Monet at some point after February 1921, when it was photographed by André Marty. At that time, it comprised the left panel of the triptych Morning with Willows (1914–26; Musée de l’Orangerie) and the full triptych Clear Morning with Willows (1914–26; Musée de l’Orangerie). In the fall of 1920, the critic Arsène Alexandre affirmed that, in the presence of Monet’s panels, “we are in the domain of pure color”; he wrote that Agapanthus was painted as if in “molten gold.”¹⁴“Mais quoique nous soyons dans ce pur domaine de la couleur . . . ,” in Arsène Alexandre, Claude Monet (Paris: Les Editions Bernheim-Jeune, 1921), 120. For “l’or en fusion,” see Arsène Alexandre, “L’Epopée des Nymphéas,” Le Figaro, October 21, 1920, 1. Alexandre evoked the placement of the works: “These decorations, placed very low, will seem to rise from the earth, and the spectator will be, so to speak, placed not only in the midst of the water lily pond . . . but even plunged right into the great artist’s passion for color and his hundredfold dreams.”¹⁵“Ces décorations, placées très bas, sembleront surgir du sol, et le spectateur sera pour ainsi dire placé non pas seulement au milieu du bassin aux nymphéas . . . mais encore plongé en plein dans la passion de couleur et dans le rêve centuplé du grand artiste.” Alexandre, “L’Epopée des Nymphéas.” However, the Bonnier building never came to fruition and, by January 1922, Monet had shifted his attention to the different space of the Orangerie. He now considered installing Agapanthus as a diptych rather than a triptych, probably intending to remove the Nelson-Atkins panel.¹⁶Monet retained the title Agapanthus, and since this bloom appeared in the left-hand panel, it is probable that he retained the left and center panels in the diptych. Soon after, he chose not to install the diptych in his final plan of April 1922.

Fig. 4. Claude Monet, *Clouds*, ca. 1915–26, oil on canvas, 79 x 502 in. (200.7 x 1275.1 cm), Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris. Photo: Michel Urtado. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

The Agapanthus triptych was photographed in February 1921 by André Marty for a book on Monet published by the dealer Bernheim-Jeune (Fig. 5). At this stage, the configuration of the Nelson-Atkins panel remained very close to the Marmottan study (see Fig. 2).¹⁷Monet had, however, already painted over a few lily pads and blooms that he had initially translated from the lower left of the study. These are visible in the x-radiograph of the panel. See Mary Schafer and Johanna Bernstein, “The Evolution of Monet’s Water Lilies: A Technical Study,” in Kelly, Monet’s Water Lilies, 52–59. From 1921 until his death in 1926, however, Monet revised the panel significantly, painting over discrete groups of water lilies to create a far more diffuse effect. Many blooms and pads were eliminated from the composition, notably the large raft of water lilies at the picture’s right. Monet altered his palette significantly, adding nuanced veils of color in lavenders, yellows, and pinks that softened the earlier, more intense colors, such as the area of crimson lily stems. Monet’s changes created an overall effect of abstraction in contrast to the more naturalistic and precise rendering in the earlier configuration of the panel, which was grounded in plein-air study. It is possible that Monet’s changes here may have been affected by his deteriorating eyesight in his final years. It has been argued recently that his cataracts prevented him from seeing color as clearly and intensely in his final years.¹⁸Michael F. Marmor, “‘Les rouges m’apparaissent boueux’: Ce que voyait Monet à travers sa cataracte,” in Sarah Houssin-Dreyfuss, ed., Monet, l’œil impressionniste, exh. cat. (Paris: Hazan, 2008), 116–31.

Fig. 5. André Marty, *Agapanthus triptych, first state*, February 14–16, 1921, photograph, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris. Photo: Robert Gordon archives

Water Lilies remained in Monet’s studio at his death, along with the other two panels of Agapanthus. It appears to be signed at the bottom left, but this is in fact a studio stamp that was added after his death. Although the panel was not installed in the Orangerie, it did acquire posthumous fame during the revival of interest in Monet’s late work in the 1950s. In 1955, it was acquired by poet and dealer Katia Granoff and may have been exhibited in Paris in 1956.¹⁹Twenty-eight water lily paintings appeared in Granoff’s exhibition Les grandes évasions poétiques de Cl. Monet, June 1–30, 1956. Although it is probable that Water Lilies, one of Granoff’s most significant purchases, appeared in this show, this cannot be confirmed. Soon after, it was purchased by the Knoedler Company and shown in New York, where it attracted praise.²⁰The exhibition Claude Monet: Les Nymphéas, Série de paysages d’eau was on view at Knoedler in New York October 8–27, 1956. The content of the exhibition is listed in Hiroo Yasui, “The European Monet Revival of the 1950s and 1960s and the Role of Katia Granoff,” in Monet, Later Works: Homage to Katia Granoff, exh. cat. (Morioka: Iwate Museum of Art, 2001), 129n24. The critic Emily Genauer wrote that the triptych filled the gallery “with the effulgent glow of violet, pink, blue, and yellow stained glass.”²¹Emily Genauer, “Today’s Artists Give Old Monets New Life,” New York Herald Tribune, October 14, 1956, 13. The picture was connected to developments in contemporary painting, notably the allover painterly effect of the American Abstract Expressionists, thus highlighting Monet’s foundational role in the rise of modern art.

Simon Kelly

January 2018

Notes

See Simon Kelly, Monet’s Water Lilies: The Agapanthus Triptych, exh. cat. (Saint Louis: Saint Louis Art Museum, 2011).
For an overview of these works, see Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné; Werkverzeichnis, vol. 4, Nos. 1596–1983 et Les Grandes Décorations (Cologne: Taschen, 1996), 944–79; the three panels are W. nos. 1975, 1976, and 1977. See also Pierre Georgel, Monet: Le cycle des Nymphéas, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1999). For an examination of the left-hand panel, see Roger Diederen in Louise d’Argencourt, European Paintings of the Nineteenth Century (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999), 2:458–62.
With the exception of Agapanthus, the only other triptych in the United States is Water Lilies (1914–26) at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Other notable examples of Monet’s late panels are The Water Lily Pond in the Evening diptych (1916/1922; Kunsthaus Zürich) and Water Lilies (after 1916; National Gallery, London).
“Je poursuis mon idée de grande décoration. C’est une bien grosse chose que j’aie entreprise, surtout à mon âge, mais je ne désespère pas d’y arriver, si je conserve la santé.” Monet to Raymond Koechlin, January 15, 1915, in Georgel, Monet, 222. All translations are by Simon Kelly, unless otherwise noted. The artist generally described his panels in the plural thereafter as his “grandes décorations.”
See François Thiébault-Sisson, “Un nouveau musée parisien: Les nymphéas de Claude Monet à l’Orangerie de Tuileries,” Revue de l’art ancient et moderne 52 (June 1927): 49.
See technical notes by Mary Schafer, NAMA paintings conservator, June 21, 2010, NAMA conservation files.
Monet to Gustave Geffroy, September 11, 1916, in Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné (Lausanne: Bibliothéque des Arts, 1986), 4:394, letter 2193.
Roger Marx, “Les Nymphéas de M. Claude Monet,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 4, no. 1 (June 1909): 529.
“Les fleurs d’eau sont loin d’être tout le spectacle; elles n’en sont, à vrai dire, que l’accompagnement. L’essentiel du motif est le miroir d’eau dont l’aspect, à tout instant, se modifie grâce aux pans de ciel qui s’y reflètent, et qui y répandent la vie et le mouvement. Le nuage qui passe, la brise qui fraîchit, le grain qui menace et qui tombe, le vent qui souffle et s’abat brusquement, la lumière qui décroit et qui renait, autant de causes, insaisissables pour l’œil des profanes, qui transforment la teinte et défigurent les plans de l’eau.” See Thiébault-Sisson, “Nouveau musée parisien,” 44; translated in Charles F. Stuckey, ed., Monet: A Retrospective (New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1985), 289.
See “Ce que Monet nous a commandé,” Latour-Marliac website (www.latour-marliac.com), via Internet Archive Wayback Machine, captured February 13, 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20180213073814/http://latour-marliac.com/fr/content/category/4-histoire. For Monet as a gardener, see William H. Robinson et al., Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2015). See bills of delivery from Latour-Marliac to Monet, May 15, 1894, and May 27, 1904, and a reminder, November 4, 1908, transcribed in Christoph Becker, ed., Monet’s Garden (Zurich: Hatje Cantz, 2004), 133–38.
“Je lègue mes quatre meilleures series à l’État français, lequel n’en fera rien!” (I am leaving my four best series to the French State, which will do nothing about it!) Quoted in [Duc Édouard de] Trévise, “Le Pèlerinage de Giverny,” La Revue de l’art ancien et modern 51, no. 282 (January 1927): 131.
See Simon Kelly, ‘“My four best series’: Monet’s Panorama at the Hôtel Biron,” in George T. M. Shackelford, ed., Monet: The Late Years, exh. cat. (Fort Worth: Kimbell Art Museum, 2019), 46–61.
Three Willows was divided by Monet at some point after February 1921, when it was photographed by André Marty. At that time, it comprised the left panel of the triptych Morning with Willows (1914–26; Musée de l’Orangerie) and the full triptych Clear Morning with Willows (1914–26; Musée de l’Orangerie).
“Mais quoique nous soyons dans ce pur domaine de la couleur . . . ,” in Arsène Alexandre, Claude Monet (Paris: Les Editions Bernheim-Jeune, 1921), 120. For “l’or en fusion,” see Arsène Alexandre, “L’Epopée des Nymphéas,” Le Figaro, October 21, 1920, 1.
“Ces décorations, placées très bas, sembleront surgir du sol, et le spectateur sera pour ainsi dire placé non pas seulement au milieu du bassin aux nymphéas . . . mais encore plongé en plein dans la passion de couleur et dans le rêve centuplé du grand artiste.” Alexandre, “L’Epopée des Nymphéas.”
Monet retained the title Agapanthus, and since this bloom appeared in the left-hand panel, it is probable that he retained the left and center panels in the diptych.
Monet had, however, already painted over a few lily pads and blooms that he had initially translated from the lower left of the study. These are visible in the x-radiograph of the panel. See Mary Schafer and Johanna Bernstein, “The Evolution of Monet’s Water Lilies: A Technical Study,” in Kelly, Monet’s Water Lilies, 52–59.
Michael F. Marmor, “‘Les rouges m’apparaissent boueux’: Ce que voyait Monet à travers sa cataracte,” in Sarah Houssin-Dreyfuss, ed., Monet, l’œil impressionniste, exh. cat. (Paris: Hazan, 2008), 116–31.
Twenty-eight water lily paintings appeared in Granoff’s exhibition Les grandes évasions poétiques de Cl. Monet, June 1–30, 1956. Although it is probable that Water Lilies, one of Granoff’s most significant purchases, appeared in this show, this cannot be confirmed.
The exhibition Claude Monet: Les Nymphéas, Série de paysages d’eau was on view at Knoedler in New York October 8–27, 1956. The content of the exhibition is listed in Hiroo Yasui, “The European Monet Revival of the 1950s and 1960s and the Role of Katia Granoff,” in Monet, Later Works: Homage to Katia Granoff, exh. cat. (Morioka: Iwate Museum of Art, 2001), 129n24.
Emily Genauer, “Today’s Artists Give Old Monets New Life,” New York Herald Tribune, October 14, 1956, 13.

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Technical Entry

Technical entry forthcoming.

Documentation

Citation

Chicago:

Glynnis Napier Stevenson, “Claude Monet, Water Lilies, ca. 1915–1926,” documentation in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.632.4033.

MLA:

Stevenson, Glynnis Napier. “Claude Monet, Water Lilies, ca. 1915–1926,” documentation. French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025. doi: 10.37764/78973.5.632.4033.

Provenance

provenance

Citation

Chicago:

MLA:

Inherited by the artist’s son, Michel Monet (1878-1966), Giverny, France, December 5, 1926–1956;

Purchased from Michel Monet by Galerie Katia Granoff, Paris, June 1–July 20, 1956 [1];

Purchased from Galerie Katia Granoff by Knoedler and Company, New York, stock book 10, no. A6418, as Nymphéas, July 20, 1956–March 20, 1957 [2];

Purchased from Knoedler by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1957.

Notes

[1] The painting was probably part of Granoff’s handwritten IOU, dated June 1, 1956, Archives of the Galerie Larock Granoff; first published in Marianne Mathieu, “The Grandes Décorations from Claude to Michel Monet (1914–1966),” in George T. M. Shackelford, ed., Monet: The Late Years, exh. cat. (Fort Worth: Kimbell Art Museum, 2019), 89, 206n83.

[2] See “Knoedler Book 10, Stock No. A6418, Page 181, Row 30,” July 20, 1956–March 20, 1957, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Dealer Stock Books, as Nymphéas. Knoedler and Company sent the painting to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in November 1956 so it could be considered for purchase. See letter from Day and Meyer-Murray and Young Corp. to the Nelson-Atkins, November 19, 1956, NAMA curatorial files. Before the purchase was finalized on March 20, 1957, Knoedler also lent the painting to a small exhibition organized by Patrick J. Kelleher, NAMA curator: Some Points of View in Modern Painting (February 10–March 10, 1957). The Trustees’ decision to purchase Monet’s Water Lilies was assisted by both Kelleher’s input and a petition from 90 students and staff of the Kansas City Art Institute urging its purchase. See copy of petition, January 7, 1957, NAMA curatorial files.

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Related Works

Citation

Chicago:

MLA:

Claude Monet, Water Lilies (Agapanthus), ca. 1915–1926, oil on canvas, 79 1/4 x 167 9/16 in. (201.3 x 425.6 cm), Cleveland Museum of Art.

Claude Monet, Water Lilies, ca. 1915–1926, oil on canvas, 78 3/4 × 167 3/4 in. (200 × 426.1 cm), Saint Louis Art Museum.

Preparatory Works

Citation

Chicago:

MLA:

Claude Monet, Water Lilies, Harmony in Blue, 1914–1917, oil on canvas, 78 1/4 x 78 3/4 in. (200 x 200 cm), Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.

Claude Monet, Agapanthus, 1914–1917, oil on canvas, 78 11/16 x 59 1/8 in. (200 x 150 cm), Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.

Claude Monet, Water Lilies and Agapanthus, 1914–1917, oil on canvas, 55 1/8 x 47 3/16 in. (140 x 120 cm), Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.

Claude Monet, Agapanthus, 1914–1926, oil on canvas, 70 x 70 1/4 in. (198.2 x 178.4 cm), The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Exhibitions

exhibitions

Citation

Chicago:

MLA:

Probably Les grandes évasions poétiques de Claude Monet, Galerie Katia Granoff, Paris, June 1–30, 1956, no cat.

Claude Monet: Les Nymphéas, Série de paysages d’eau, Knoedler and Company, New York, October 8–27, 1956, no cat.

Some Points of View in Modern Painting, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 10–March 10, 1957, no. 1, as Nymphéas (Water Lilies).

Claude Monet: a loan exhibition, City Art Museum of St. Louis, September 25–October 22, 1957; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, November 1–December 1, 1957, no. 94, as Water Lilies.

The Logic of Modern Art: An Exhibition Tracing the Evolution of Modern Painting from Cezanne to 1960, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 19–February 26, 1961, no. 35, as Nymphéas.

The Road to Impressionism, Wichita Art Museum, KS, October 6–November 10, 1963, hors cat.

Monet’s Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, April 19–July 9, 1978; Saint Louis Art Museum, August 1–October 8, 1978, no. 78, as Water Lilies.

Monet’s Waterlilies Triptych, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 6–June 15, 1979; Cleveland Museum of Art, September 18, 1979–February 18, 1980; Saint Louis Art Museum, March 20–September 14, 1980, no cat.

Impressionism: Selections From Five American Museums, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, November 4–December 31, 1989; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, January 27–March 25, 1990; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 21–June 17, 1990; Saint Louis Art Museum, July 14–September 9, 1990; Toledo Museum of Art, OH, September 30–November 25, 1990, no. 56, as Water Lilies.

Monet’s Water Lilies, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 9–August 7, 2011; Saint Louis Art Museum, October 2, 2011–January 22, 2012, as Water Lilies and The Agapanthus Triptych.

World War I and the Rise of Modernism, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, December 17, 2014–October 18, 2015, no cat., as Water Lilies.

Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse, Cleveland Museum of Art, October 11, 2015–January 5, 2016; Royal Academy of Arts, London, January 30–April 20, 2016, no. 141, as Water Lilies (Agapanthus).

Monet’s Water Lilies: From Dawn to Dusk, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 12, 2021–January 23, 2022, no cat.

Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, October 5, 2022–February 27, 2023, no. 52, as L’Agapanthe.

Monet and His Modern Legacy, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 28, 2023–March 10, 2024, no cat.

Monet in Conversation with Americans in Paris, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 30, 2024–March 23, 2025, no cat.

Top of section

References

references

Citation

Chicago:

MLA:

François Thiébault-Sisson, “Claude Monet,” Le Temps, no. 21435 (April 6, 1920): 3.

François Thiébault-Sisson, “Art et curiosité: Un don de M. Claude Monet à l’État,” Le Temps, no. 21624 (October 14, 1920): 2, as Nymphéas.

Arsène Alexandre, “L’Epopée des Nymphéas,” Le Figaro, no. 294 (October 21, 1920): 1.

Édouard Mortier, Duc de Trévise, Chez Claude Monet: le pèlerinage de Giverny (1920; repr. Paris: L’Échoppe, 2016), 25–29, 35, as les nymphéas.

[Édouard Mortier, duc de] Trévise, “Le Pèlerinage de Giverny,” La Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 51, no. 282 (January 1927): 131.

[François] Thiébault-Sisson, “Claude Monet’s Water Lilies,” La Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 52, no. 287 (June 1927): 49 [repr. in Martha Kapos, ed., The Impressionists: A Retrospective (New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1991), 302, 317].

Georges Charensol, “Beaux-Arts,” Revue des Deux Mondes (1829–1971) (July 15, 1956): 343, 346–48.

Thomas Hess, “Monet: Tithonus at Giverny,” ARTNews 55, no. 6 (October 1956): 53.

Howard Devree, “Modern Pioneer: Monet Wrought a Magic In Color and Light,” New York Times 106, no. 36,058 (October 14, 1956): X11.

Emily Genauer, “Today’s Artists Give Old Monets New Life,” New York Herald Tribune 116, no. 48,345 (October 14, 1956): 13, as Nympheas.

Hilton Kramer, “Month in Review,” Arts Magazine 31, no. 2 (November 1956): 52–54, as Les Nymphéas and Série de paysages d’eau.

Henry Luce Robinson, “Rediscovered Modern,” Time 69, no. 4 (January 28, 1957): 77, 79.

Ross E. Taggart, “Kansas City Art,” Library Journal 82, no. 12 (June 15, 1957): 1596.

Frank Getlein, “Visitor Says We Have A ‘Great’ Art Collection,” Kansas City Star 77, no. 290 (July 7, 1957): 4A, as Water Lilies.

Patrick J. Kelleher, Some Points of View in Modern Painting, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1957), 8, as Nymphéas (Water Lilies).

William C. Seitz, Claude Monet: a loan exhibition, exh. cat. (St. Louis: City Art Museum, 1957), 38, 43, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Jean Guichard-Meili, “Review: Claude Monet by Léon Degand and Denis Rouart,” Ésprit, new series, no. 272 (April 1959): 702, as Nymphéas.

Sanka Knox, “Modern Museum Gets New Monet: 3-Part Water-Lily Canvas Replaces Picture of Same Subject Lost in Fire,” New York Times 109, no. 37,172 (November 2, 1959): 33.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 122, (repro.), as Nymphéas.

Henry S. Francis, “Claude Monet Water Lilies,” Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 8 (October 1960): 196, 198.

Jan Dickerson, “Impressionist Art Purchases Shown at Gallery,” Kansas City Star 81, no. 50 (November 6, 1960): 1F.

Jean-Pierre Hoschedé, Claude Monet, ce mal connu: intimé familiale d’un demi-siècle à Giverny de 1883 à 1926 (Geneva: Pierre Cailler Éditeur, 1960), 1:133–36, 138–39, 157, 163, as Décorations des Nymphéas.

The Logic of Modern Art: An Exhibition Tracing the Evolution of Modern Painting from Cezanne to 1960, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1961), 30, (repro.), as Nymphéas.

Ralph T. Coe, “A Curator Tells the ‘Why’ of Gallery Purchases,” Kansas City Star 85, no. 318 (August 1, 1965): [1]D.

Paulette Howard-Johnston, “Une visite à Giverny en 1924,” L’Œil, no. 171 (March 1969): 31.

Rosalind K. Ellingsworth, “Art and Ages Reborn for Students on Tours at Gallery,” Kansas City Times 101, no. 208 (May 8, 1969): 3B, as Nympheas.

Laura Rollins Hockaday, “Twenty-One Bow to Society at Jewel Ball,” Kansas City Times 102, no. 252 (June 27, 1970): 1.

François Daulte and Claude Richebé, Monet et ses amis: Le legs Michel Monet, la donation Donop de Monchy, exh. cat. (Paris: Musée Marmottan, 1971), 45.

Denis Rouart and Jean-Dominique Rey, Monet, nymphéas: ou les miroirs du temps (Paris: Fernand Hazan Éditeur, 1972), 134–35, 177, (repro.), as Nymphéas.

Donald Hoffmann, “A Beautiful Monet is Acquired by Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star Magazine, supplement, Kansas City Star 93, no. 126 (January 21, 1973): S12.

Robert Gordon, “The Lily Pond at Giverny: The Changing Inspiration of Monet,” Connoisseur 184, no. 741 (November 1973): 155, 162–64, as Décoration des Nymphéas.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 162, 258, (repro.), as Nymphéas.

Claire Joyes, Monet at Giverny (London: Mathews Miller Dunbar, 1975), 13–14, 39–40, 105, 113, 143, (repro.), as Les Décorations des Nymphéas.

Polly Cone, ed., Monet’s Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978), 25, 32, 34, 39–40n19, 172–73, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Reinhold Hohl, “New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ausstellung: Monet’s years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism: 22. April bis 9. Juli 1978,” Pantheon 36, no. 3 (July–September 1978): 293.

Victoria Kirsch Meicher, “Monet: Colors, Genius,” Kansas City Star 98, no. 298 (August 13, 1978): 4E, as Water Lilies.

Charles S. Moffett, Monet’s Water Lilies (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978), 1–2, 6–10, 12, unpaginated:n20, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Robert H. Terte, “The Phenomenal Nelson Gallery,” Antiques World 1, no. 3 (January 1979): 46.

Robert Gordon and Charles F. Stuckey, “Blossoms and Blunders: Monet and the State,” Art in America 67, no. 1 (January–February 1979): 107, 112–13, 115, (repro.), as “agapanthus” triptych.

Beverly Rosenberg, “Monet’s Waterlilies Paintings,” Wednesday Magazine 42, no. 32 (March 28, 1979): 1, as Waterlilies Paintings.

Independent (March 24, 1979): unpaginated, (repro.), as Waterlilies Triptyche.

“Things to Do,” Kansas City Star 99, no. 162 (March 25, 1979): 43, as Waterlilies.

“Calendar, April, 1979: Exhibitions,” Gallery Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (April 1979): unpaginated, as Nymphéas (Water Lilies).

Donald Hoffmann, “Finding Monet’s ‘Lilies,’” Kansas City Star 99, no. 180 (April 15, 1979): [1]E, 7E, as Water Lilies.

“Calendar, May, 1979: Exhibitions,” Gallery Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (May 1979): unpaginated, as Nymphéas (Water Lilies).

“Calendar, June–August, 1979: Exhibitions,” Gallery Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (June–August 1979): unpaginated, as Nymphéas (Water Lilies).

Charles F. Stuckey, “Blossoms and Blunders: Monet and the State, Part II,” Art in America 67, no. 5 (September 1979): 125.

Donald Hoffmann, “Art: Small Watercolors Magical,” Kansas City Star 100, no. 65 (December 2, 1979): 7E, as Waterlilies.

Hanne Finsen, Monet i Giverny: (1883–1926), exh. cat. (Copenhagen: Ordrupgaardsamlingen, 1979), 18, 25, as Décorations des Nymphéas.

Georges Charensol, “Les Beaux-Arts,” La Nouvelle Revue des Deux Mondes (April 1980): 184, as Nymphéas.

“Annual Report for 1979,” Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 6 (June 1980): 162, 173, 187, 189, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Patricia Failing, “Picking Up the Pieces: The Case of the Dismembered Masterpieces,” ARTnews 79, no. 7 (September 1980): 77, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Katia Granoff, Ma vie et mes rencontres: avec Bouche, Chagall, Chabaud, Ozenfant, Monet, Guitton (Paris: Christian Bourgois Éditeur, 1981), 60, 175–76, 183, as les Nymphéas.

Jack Cowart, “Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings,” Bulletin (Saint Louis Art Museum) 16, no. 2, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings (Winter 1982): 22–23, (repro.), as Water Lilies and Agapanthus.

Horst Keller, Ein Garten wird Malerei: Monets Jahre in Giverny (Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1982), 131.

Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge, Monet (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983), 231, 235–38, 255, 257, 271, 293, (repro.), as Nymphéas (formerly Agapanthes; Water Lilies [formerly Agapanthus]).

“Patrick J. Kelleher 1918–1985,” Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 44, no. 2 (1985): 37, as Waterlilies.

William B. Ober, “Monet’s Gardens at Giverny,” MD Magazine 29, no. 5 (May 1985): 58–59, as Nymphéas (Water Lilies).

Claire Joyes, Claude Monet: Life at Giverny (New York: Vendome, 1985), 8, 37, 103, 105, 108, 113, 121, 125, 147, (repro.), as Large Decorations and Water Landscapes.

Karin Sagner-Düchting, Claude Monet: ‘Nymphéas’; Eine Annäherung (Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms, 1985), 28, 54–56, 68, as Agapanthus.

Charles F. Stuckey, ed., Monet: A Retrospective (New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1985), 16, 29, 277–79, 289–93, 295, 299–300, 302–05, 338–40, 349, (repro.), as nymphéas and Water Lilies.

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 4, 1899–1926: Peintures (Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des arts, 1985), no. 1977, pp. 97–98, 316–19, 322–23, 437, (repro.), as Décorations and L’Agapanthe (État actuel; partie droite du triptyque).

Christian Geelhaar et al., Claude Monet, Nymphéas: impression, vision, exh. cat. (Zurich: Schweizer Verlagshaus AG, 1986), 64, as L’Agapanthe.

John House, Monet: Nature into Art (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986), 11, 59–60, 106, 147, 191, 216, 232, 245n54, as Water Lily Decorations.

“Museums to Sports, KC Has It All,” American Water Works Association Journal 79, no. 4 (April 1987): 133.

Charles F. Stuckey, Monet: Water Lilies (New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1988), 22, 83, 131, as Agapanthus and Water Lilies.

Marc S. Gerstein, Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, exh. cat. (New York: Hudson Hills, 1989), 132–33, 135, (repro.), as Water Lilies, Nymphéas, and The Agapanthus (L’Agapanthe).

Toni Wood, “The impressionists broke all the rules: Modern viewers love impressionism,” Kansas City Star 110, no. 184 (April 15, 1990): H-4, as Water Lilies.

Scott Cantrell, “Keepers of the Light: Working from individual blueprints, impressionists laid colorful bricks in the foundation of modern art,” Kansas City Star 110, no. 191 (April 22, 1990): I4.

Toni Wood, “Expatriate paintings in Midwest: Works took diverse routes to exhibit,” Kansas City Star 110, no. 233 (June 3, 1990): G1, G5, as Water Lilies.

Clive Gregory and Sue Lyon, eds., Great Artists of the Western World, vol. 7, Impressionism: Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (London: Marshall Cavendish, 1990), 97.

Karin Sagner-Düchting, Claude Monet, 1840–1926: Ein Fest für die Augen (Cologne: Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1990), 207, 209, 214, (repro.), as Seerosen, früher Schmucklilien and Nymphéas, jadis Agapanthus.

Christopher Lyon, “Unveiling Monet”; and Rona Roob, “From the Archives: Fire and “Water Lilies,” MoMA, no. 7 (Spring 1991): 15, 24, as Nymphéas.

Paul Taylor, “Interview with Ellsworth Kelly,” Interview 21, no. 6 (June 1991): 102.

Daniel Wildenstein, Catalogue des peintures, vol. 5, Supplément au catalogue des peintures, Dessins, Pastels, Index (Lausanne: Wildenstein Institute, 1991), no. 1977, pp. 292, 332–33, 335.

Paul Taylor, “Ellsworth Kelly: interview,” Artstudio, no. 24 (Spring 1992): 150–51, 154–55.

Yve-Alain Bois, Jack Cowart, and Alfred Pacquement, Ellsworth Kelly: The Years in France, 1948–1954, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1992), 192–93.

Virginia Spate, Claude Monet: Life and Work (New York: Rizzoli, 1992), 276, 280–81, 313, 332n65, 332n70, as Agapanthus.

Sandro Sproccati, Monet (Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books, 1992), 265, (repro.), as Water Lilies (formerly Agapanthus).

Alice Thorson, “The Nelson celebrates its 60th; Museum built its reputation, collection virtually ‘from scratch,’” Kansas City Star (July 18, 1993): J1, as Waterlilies.

Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 1933–1993 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 74, 80n4, as Water Lilies.

Arnaud d’Hauterives, Marianne Delafond, and François Daulte, Claude Monet et ses amis: œuvres choisies du Musée Marmottan et de collections privées, exh. cat. (Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des arts, 1993), 58.

Bernard Denvir, The Chronicle of Impressionism: An Intimate Diary of the Lives and World of the Great Artists (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993), 279, as Water Lilies.

Christina Orr-Cahall and Paul Hayes Tucker, Claude Monet: An Impression, exh. cat. (West Palm Beach, FL: Norton Gallery of Art, 1993), unpaginated.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 131, 217, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Gérald Van der Kemp, Monet: A Visit to Giverny (Versailles: Art Lys, 1994), 15, 17, 20, 73, 76, as Décorations des Nymphéas.

Elizabeth Vallance, “The Public Curriculum of Orderly Images,” Educational Researcher 24, no. 2 (March 1995): 5, as Waterlilies.

“Music Teachers National Association National Convention, March 23–27, 1996, Kansas City, Missouri,” American Music Teacher 45, no. 4 (February–March 1996): 23.

Richard Kendall, ed., Monet by Himself: Paintings, Drawings, Pastels, Letters, trans. Bridget Strevens Romer (Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books, 1996), 240–41, 249, 257–58, as Grande Décoration.

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet or The Triumph of Impressionism (Cologne: Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1996), no. 1977, pp. 360, 402–03, 405–06, 409–19, 421–23, 436–37, 479, (repro.), as Agapanthus, L’Agapanthe, and Grand Decorations.

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue Raisonné; Werkverzeichnis, vol. 4, Nos. 1596–1983 et Les Grandes Décorations (Cologne: Taschen, 1996), no. 1977, pp. 946–47, 964–65, 1049, 1052, (repro.), as L’Agapanthe (état actuel), Agapanthus (present state), and Schmucklilien (heutiger Zustand).

Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the 20th Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 69, 95, 98, 100, 114–15, 218, 252, 291n13, as Agapanthus.

Louise d’Argencourt, European Paintings of the Nineteenth Century (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999), 2:458–62, (repro.), as L’Agapanthe (Agapanthus).

Pierre Georgel, Monet: Le cycle des ‘Nymphéas’; Catalogue sommaire, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1999), 43–47, 49–52, 68, 216, 225–26, (repro), as grandes décorations and L’Agapanthe.

Ann Dumas and Michael E. Shapiro, Impressionism: Paintings Collected by European Museums, exh. cat. (Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1999), 177, 264, as Water Lilies.

Craig Horst, “Travel on Foot to See the Quirky and Classic Art of Kansas City,” Salt Lake Tribune 250, no. 65 (June 18, 2000): H1, as Water Lilies.

Craig Horst, “Kansas City museums offer the traditional and the quirky,” Ann Arbor News (June 25, 2000): H3, as Water Lilies.

Gérald van der Kemp and Daniel Wildenstein, The Gardens at Giverny: A View of Monet’s World by Stephen Shore (Millerton, NY: Aperture Books, 2000), 11, 16.

John Sanford, “Monet’s works at Giverny don’t fit definition of Impressionism, professor argues,” Stanford Report 33, no. 22 (March 21, 2001): 5, (repro.), as Grandes Décorations.

Debra N. Mancoff, Monet’s Garden in Art (London: Frances Lincoln, 2001), 124–25, (repro.), as Agapanthus.

Karin Sagner-Düchting, ed., Monet and Modernism, trans. John William Gabriel, exh. cat. (Munich: Prestel, 2001), 70.

Hiroo Yasui, Shin-ichi Numabe, and Katsunori Fukaya, eds., Monet; Later Works: Homage to Katia Granoff, exh. cat. (Nagoya, Japan: Chunichi Shimbun, 2001), 21, 30n24, 119, 129n24, as Agapanthus.

Ernst Beyeler, Claude Monet bis zum digitalen Impressionismus, exh. cat. (Munich: Prestel, 2002), 13, 25, 135–36, 158n12, 239, as Grandes Décorations.

Oliver Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, trans. Gloria Custance (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), 141–42, as Agapanthus.

William C. Seitz, Claude Monet (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003), 41, 126.

Simone Thalmann, “Claude Monet: Le bassin aux nymphéas (um 1917–1920),” Ansichten 2 (2004): 9, 15, as Grandes Décorations.

Bernd Küster, Anke Kuhbier, and Heinz Teufel, Claude Monet und sein Garten (Hamburg: Ellert und Richter, 2004), 63, 148, as großen Dekorationen and Grandes Décorations.

Clare A. P. Willsdon, In the Gardens of Impressionism (New York: Vendome, 2004), 228.

Mike Hendricks, “At Nelson, The Fat Lady Still Silent,” Kansas City Star (March 18, 2005): B1, as Water Lilies.

Tas Skorupa, ed., Chichu Art Museum: Tadao Ando Builds for Walter De Maria, James Turrell, and Claude Monet, trans. Noriko Umemiya, Yoko Iida, and Brian Hart (Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2005), 137–39, 142–43, 146, 149, as Grandes Décorations, Nymphéas, and Water Lilies.

Vanessa Gavioli, ed., Art Classics: Monet (New York: Rizzoli, 2005), 54, 162, as Water Lilies.

“Vibrant Galleries Offer Fresh View of European Art,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Fall 2006): 7, as Water Lilies.

Doris Kutschbach, Living Monet: The Artist’s Gardens (Munich: Prestel, 2006), 62, 66, 125, 138, as Grandes Décorations.

Heather Lemonedes, Lynn Federle Orr, and David Steel, Monet in Normandy, exh. cat. (New York: Rizzoli International, 2006), 178, 192n62.1, 192n62.3, as Water Lilies (Agapanthus).

Karin Sagner, Monet at Giverny (Munich: Prestel, 2006), 71, 76, 80, 88, 108–09, (repro.), as Agapanthuses and Waterlilies.

Norio Shimada, Great Masters of Western Art, Book 1: Claude Monet (Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 2006), 112–13, (repro.), as Agapanthus.

Ashok Roy, “Monet’s Palette in the Twentieth Century: Water-Lilies and Irises,” National Gallery Technical Bulletin 28 (2007): 58–59, 61, 67n1, 67n9, as Grandes Décorations.

Joseph Baillio, Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff (New York: Wildenstein, 2007), 42, 129–30, 133, 177–78, as Nymphéas and The Agapanthus Decoration.

Joe Houston et al., In Monet’s Garden: Artists and the Lure of Giverny, exh. cat. (Columbus, OH: Columbus Museum of Art, 2007), 16–17, 97.

William H. Robinson, Monet to Dalí: Impressionist and Modern Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007), 34.

Claudio Zambianchi, I Grandi Maestri Dell’Arte: L’artista e il suo tempo (Florence: E-Ducation.it, 2007), 2:80.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 35, 129, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Jean Dominique Rey and Denis Rouart, Monet, Water Lilies: The Complete Series (Paris: Flammarion, 2008), 111, 145, 158, (repro.), as Water Lilies and Agapanthus.

Jenny Gheith, “Tableau Vert,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 35, no. 2, Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago (2009): 44.

Alice Thorson, “Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’ Examined: Art, Science Intersect at Nelson,” Kansas City Star 130, no. 277 (June 21, 2010): A1, A12, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Alice Thorson, “The Nelson’s new director aims for relevance,” Kansas City Star (August 29, 2010): G2, as Water Lilies.

“New Light Shines on Monet’s Water Lilies,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Fall 2010): 13, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Paloma Alarcó, Monet et l’abstraction/Monet and abstraction, trans. David Wharry, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions Hazan, 2010), 68, 71, 73, as Grandes Décorations.

Michel Draguet, Les Nymphéas: Monet, Grandeur, Nature (Paris: Éditions Hazan, 2010), viii–ix, xn42, as Grandes Décorations and Agapanthes.

Alexandre Duval-Stalla, Claude Monet—Georges Clemenceau: une histoire, deux caractères; biographie croisée (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2010), 23–26, 29, 213–14, 219, 240, as Nymphéas, gigantesques constructions, and Grandes Décorations.

Stephen F. Eisenman, ed., From Corot to Monet: The Ecology of Impressionism, exh. cat. (Milan: Skira, 2010), 344, as L’Agapanthe.

Claire Joyes, Claude Monet à Giverny: La visite et la mémoire des lieux (Giverny, France: Éditions Claude Monet, 2010), 70–71, 78, as Grandes Décorations aux Nymphéas.

Vincent Noce, Monet, l’oeil et l’eau (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2010), 205, 210–13, as Décorations.

Paul Hayes Tucker, Claude Monet: Late Work, exh. cat. (New York: Gagosian Gallery, 2010), 149–53, as Nymphéas and Les agapanthes.

Pierre Wat, Les Nymphéas, la nuit: Ateliers imaginaires, Claude Monet (Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Scala, 2010), 89–91, as grandes décorations.

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism (Cologne: Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 2010), no. 1977, pp. 360, 402–03, 405–06, 409–19, 421–22, 436–37, 478, 480, (repro.), as Agapanthus, L’Agapanthe, and Grand Decorations.

Simon Kelly, Monet’s Water Lilies: The Agapanthus Triptych, exh. cat. (Saint Louis: Saint Louis Art Museum, 2011), 6–13, 18, 20, 22, 25–27, 29, 31, 33–35, 38, 40–42, 44–60, (repro.), as Agapanthus and Water Lilies.

“Claude Monet: The Deliberate Artist Who Created the Water Lilies,” Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Spring 2011): 1, 7–8, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Cori Hampton Bostick, ed., “‘Monet’s Water Lilies’ at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” Blouinartinfo.com’s Gallery Guide: Chicago, Midwest (March 2011): 6–7.

Alice Thorson, “This ‘Lilies’ panel hides a secret,” Kansas City Star 131, no. 177 (March 13, 2011): G3.

Alice Thorson, “Of three ‘Lilies’ panels, this one blooms the brightest,” Kansas City Star 131, no. 184 (March 20, 2011): F2, as Water Lilies.

Alice Thorson, “‘Water Lilies’ panels went from degradation to fame,” Kansas City Star 131, no. 191 (March 27, 2011): F3, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Javier Pes, “What’s On: Monet’s flowers put back together, The Agapanthus triptych co-operatively reassembled by Midwestern museums,” Art Newspaper 20, no. 223 (April 2011): 78, as Agapanthus triptych.

Maria Sudekum Fisher, “Nelson-Atkins Reunites Impressionist Master Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’ Triptych,” ArtDaily.com (April 1, 2011): unpaginated, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Alice Thorson, “A new way to experience art,” Kansas City Star 131, no. 196 (April 1, 2011): A1, A10, as Water Lilies.

Alice Thorson, “Nelson museum reunites Monet’s ‘Water Lilies,’” Kansas City Star (April 3, 2011): MG8, as Water Lilies.

Alice Thorson, “Three Times the Wonder: Claude Monet’s later work reflects his obsession with the color and reflections in his water garden,” Kansas City Star Magazine, supplement, Kansas City Star 131, no. 198 (April 3, 2011): S1, S8–S13, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

“Briefs: Disney, airport ticket kiosks, and Monet in Kansas City,” Chicago Sun-Times (April 10, 2011): http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/travel/4694284-502/briefs-disney-airport-ticket-kiosks-and-monet-in-kansas-city.html.

Abby Eden, “Monet Exhibit Opens to the Public,” Fox 4 News (April 10, 2011): http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf--monet-tryptic-displayed-nelsonatkins-20110410,0,854454.story.

“Colorful Pedicabs Offer Rides, Discounts to Monet’s Water Lilies at the Nelson-Atkins,” ArtDaily.org (April 18, 2011): http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=46624.

“Featured Exhibition: Monet’s Water Lilies,” Explore Art (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (May–June 2011): 2, 7–9, 14, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

“Consul General of France Visits Monet Exhibition at Nelson-Atkins Museum,” ArtDaily.org (June 12, 2011): http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=48204.

“Last Chance for Public to See Water Lilies Together at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” ArtDaily.org (July 16, 2011): http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=49129.

“Monet’s Magnificent Waterlilies,” Little Rock Examiner: Contemporary Art Examiner (June 26, 2011), unpaginated, as “Water Lilies Agapanthus” triptych.

“Monet’s Water Lilies at Nelson through August 7,” Kansas City Examiner: Events (July 19, 2011), unpaginated, as Water Lilies.

Alice Thorson, “‘Water Lilies’ Drives Attendance,” Kansas City Star 131, no. 331 (August 14, 2011): F3, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Diane Toroian Keaggy, “Revisiting Monet-St. Louis Art Museum curator shares ‘wow’ experience of water lilies with new exhibit,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (October 2, 2011): E1, as “Agapanthus” triptych.

“For the first time in 30 years, Saint Louis Art Museum reunites Monet’s Water Lilies,” ArtDaily.org (October 3, 2011): http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=50838

Bradley Fratello, “Art Museum’s ‘Water Lilies’ shines more brightly in context,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Special to the Post-Dispatch) (October 23, 2011): E7, as “Agapanthus” triptych.

Giuliana Giulietti, Proust e Monet: I più begli occhi del XX secolo (Rome: Donzelli editore, 2011), 135.

Daniel Marchesseau, ed., Monet au Musée Marmottan et dans les collections suisses; Estampes japonaises: Fondation Claude Monet, Giverny, exh. cat. (Martigny, France: Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 2011), 26–27, 207, as Nymphéas and Grandes Décorations.

Laurence Bertrand Dorléac, Contre-déclin: Monet et Spengler dans les jardins de l’histoire (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2012), 186–87, 195, as grandes décorations.

Véronique Serrano, ed., Bonnard Among Friends: Matisse, Monet, Vuillard . . . ., exh. cat. (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2012), 17, 65, 72–73, 76, 84, 142, as Water Lilies and large machines.

Christophe Vitale, Clémenceau et les artistes modernes: Manet, Monet, Rodin, exh. cat. (Paris: Somogy éditions d’art, 2013), 102, 105–06, 111, 116, 172, (repro.), as Grandes Décorations de Nymphéas.

James A. Fussell, “Museum honors heroes who rescued art in war,” Kansas City Star 134, no. 127 (January 22, 2014): A6, as Water Lilies.

Yve-Alain Bois and Sarah Lees, Monet/Kelly, exh. cat. (Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2014), 9, 51, 53–54, 58, 59n1, 59n2, as Nymphéas.

Elisabeth Kirsch, “Provocative exhibit at Nelson-Atkins museum shows evolution of modernism in World War I,” Kansas City Star: Special to the Star online (January 24, 2015): unpaginated, as Water Lilies.

Milica Acamovic, “Art 101—Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies,’” KCStudio.org (March 9, 2015): http://kcstudio.org/art-101-claude-monets-water-lilies/.

Diane Stafford, “Bloch gift to go for Nelson upgrade,” Kansas City Star 135, no. 203 (April 8, 2015): A8, as Water Lilies.

Christoph Heinrich, Claude Monet, 1840–1926: Capturing the Ever-Changing Face of Reality (Los Angeles: Taschen, 2015), 85, 87, 90.

William H. Robinson et al., Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2015), 8, 45, 59, 169, 267–69, 291–93, 311, (repro.), as Water Lilies (Agapanthus) and Grandes Décorations.

Steven Litt, “Cleveland Museum of Art’s ‘Monet to Matisse’ digs for roots of modernism in artists’ gardens,” Cleveland.com (October 9, 2015): http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2015/10/cleveland_museum_of_arts_monet.html.

Vincent Noce, “Van Gogh’s Garden at Auvers, once labelled a fake, gets its day in the sun at Royal Academy: The big ticket show holds few surprises but plenty of public appeal,” Art Newspaper (January 30, 2016): http://theartnewspaper.com/news/museums/van-gogh-s-garden-at-auvers-once-labelled-a-fake-gets-its-day-in-the-sun-at-royal-academy/.

“Exhibition examines the role of gardens in the paintings of Monet and his contemporaries,” ArtDaily.org (January 31, 2016): http://artdaily.com/news/84751/Exhibition-examines-the-role-of-gardens-in-the-paintings-of-Monet-and-his-contemporaries#.Vq-L7UBOW-0.

Ann Dumas, “Fondersi con la natura: il giardino dipinto, da Monet a Matisse, a Londra,” Art e dossier, no. 330 (March 2016): 39, as Trittico Agapanthus.

Nina Siegal, “Upon Closer Review, Credit Goes to Bosch,” New York Times 165, no. 57130 (February 2, 2016): C5.

“Nelson-Atkins to unveil renovated Bloch Galleries of European Art in winter 2017,” ArtDaily.org (July 20, 2016): http://artdaily.com/news/88852/Nelson-Atkins-to-unveil-renovated-Bloch-Galleries-of-European-Art-in-winter-2017-#.V6D_CFKFO9J.

Philippe Dagen, Hodler, Monet, Munch: peindre l’impossible, exh. cat. (Vanves: Hazan, 2016), 15, as Water Lilies.

Catherine Futter et al., Bloch Galleries: Highlights from the Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2016), 90–91, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Ross King, Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies (New York: Bloomsbury, 2016), 229, 258, 303, 389n38, 393, as Agapanthus and Water Lilies.

Jean-Dominique Rey and Denis Rouart, Monet, les nymphéas: l’intégralité (Paris: Flammarion, 2016), 110, 145, (repro.), as Nymphéas, l’Agapanthe.

David Frese, “Inside the Bloch Galleries: An interactive experience,” Kansas City Star 137, no. 169 (March 5, 2017): 4D, (repro.).

Laura Spencer, “The Nelson-Atkins’ Bloch Galleries feature Old Masterworks and New Technology,” KCUR (March 10, 2017): http://kcur.org/post/nelson-atkins-bloch-galleries-feature-old-masterworks-and-new-technology#stream/0, as Water Lilies.

Félicie Faizand de Maupeou, “Du peintre à l’architecte: la mise en exposition des Nymphéas de Monet à l’Orangerie des Tuileries,” In Situ 32 (July 27, 2017): unpaginated, n15, n33, n41, as Nymphéas, l’Agapanthe, and Décoration.

Laurence Madeline, Musée de l’Orangerie: The Walter-Guillaume Collection and Monet’s Water Lilies (Lyon, France: Nouvelles Éditions Scala, 2017), 124.

Marianne Mathieu and Dominique Lobstein, Monet collectionneur (Vanves, France: Éditions Hazan, 2017), 253, as Nymphéas.

Cécile Debray, ed., Nymphéas: L’abstraction américaine et le dernier Monet, exh. cat. (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2018), 8, 17–18, 46, 48, 131–32, 138, 150–51, 186–88, 190, as Grandes décorations des Nymphéas.

Heinz Widauer and Dieter Buchhart, eds. Claude Monet: A Floating World, exh. cat. (Vienna: Albertina, 2018), 207–08n34.

Jennifer Silvey, “10 Art pieces or galleries to go see in Kansas City this spring,” Fox4KC.com (March 11, 2019): https://fox4kc.com/2019/03/10/10-art-pieces-or-galleries-to-go-see-in-kansas-city-this-spring/, as Water Lilies.

George T. M. Shackelford, ed., Monet: The Late Years, exh. cat. (Fort Worth: Kimbell Art Museum, 2019), 40, 47–54, 58–61, 88–90, 157–58, 201n67, 202n29, 203n60, 206n76–82, 206n95, (repro.), as Agapanthus triptych.

Emily Cox, “Exploring the Nelson-Atkins after six months in small spaces,” The Pitch (October 22, 2020): https://www.thepitchkc.com/exploring-the-nelson-atkins-after-six-months-in-small-spaces/, (repro.), as Water Lilies.

Suzanne Pagé, Angeline Scherf, and Marianne Mathieu, eds., Claude Monet, Joan Mitchell, exh. cat. (Paris: Fondation Louis Vuitton, 2022), 23, 25, 32, 34, 142, 150–55, 163–64, 211, 217, (repro.), as L’Agapanthe.

“Claude Monet et Joan Mitchel à la Fondation Louis Vuitton,” Le Journal (Fondation Louis Vuitton), no. 14 (2022): 2, 8, 10, 12, 28–29, (repro.), as L’Agapanthe.

“Monet meets Mitchell at Fondation Louis Vuitton this fall,” LiveAuctioneers: Auction Central News (September 3, 2022): https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/monet-meets-mitchell-at-fondation-louis-vuitton-this-fall/.

“Announcements: Monet-Mitchell, Fondation Louis Vuitton,” e-flux (September 5, 2022): https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/482031/monet-mitchell/, as Agapanthus Triptych.

“Monet–Mitchell,” Apollo (September 30, 2022): https://www.apollo-magazine.com/monet-mitchell-fondation-louis-vuitton-paris/, as Agapanthus triptych.

“Exhibition creates a visual, artistic, and sensorial dialogue between Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell,” ArtDaily (October 5, 2022): https://artdaily.cc/news/150508/Exhibition-creates-a-visual--artistic--and-sensorial-dialogue-between-Claude-Monet-and-Joan-Mitchell#.Yz2oUHbMJhE.

Armand Limnander, “Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell Meet in Paris,” W Magazine (October 6, 2022): https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/monet-mitchell-fondation-louis-vuitton-paris, (repro.), as Agapanthus triptych.

Amy Verner, “In Paris, ‘Monet–Mitchell’ Puts Two Visionary Artists Into Dynamic Dialogue,” Vogue (October 10, 2022): https://www.vogue.com/article/monet-mitchell-fondation-louis-vuitton-exhibition, as Water Lilies (Agapanthus).

Simon Kelly, Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape, exh. cat. (St. Louis: Saint Louis Art Museum, 2023), 27, 31, 46, 52, 69, 75–76, (repro.), as Agapanthus (Water Lilies).

Christine Jackson, “‘Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape’ puts two groundbreaking artists in conversation,” St. Louis Magazine (March 22, 2023): https://www.stlmag.com/culture/visual-arts/monet-mitchell-at-the-saint-louis-art-museum/, as Agapanthus triptych.

“Kansas City arts and culture poises for a renaissance,” Kansas City Business Journal (June 15, 2023): unpaginated.

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