Water Lilies

In 1901 and 1902 Monet enlarged the lily pond in his garden at Giverny, and from then on it became the subject he returned to more than any other. In 1907 he painted it on about 15 canvases set upright, taller than they are wide, and this is one of them. The upper half is a blaze of orange and gold, the reflection of trees on the far bank caught in sunlight, though the trees themselves never appear. Lower down the water turns a pale pink with reflected sky, and dark lily pads drift across it in loose clusters. The canvas now hangs in Izumi, south of Osaka, in a museum that opened in 1982 after the Kubo family, cotton weavers there since the late 19th century, gave the city their art collection, land and buildings.