Water Lilies

In August 1901 Monet wrote to the prefect of the Eure asking to take more water from the Epte into his garden at Giverny. He had bought extra land and wanted a bigger pond, and for the next four months the request went back and forth between the state bridges-and-roads service, the Ministry of Agriculture, the sub-prefecture and the village council. In December the prefect settled it by citing the Civil Code, which let a landowner use a stream crossing his property as he liked, provided it left in its normal course. This canvas, signed and dated 1903, comes from the first years of painting the enlarged pond. The surface of the water fills the whole picture, with clusters of lilies floating here and there. It now hangs in Tokyo, in the museum Shōjirō Ishibashi, founder of the Bridgestone tyre company, opened in 1952.