Water Lilies (Nymphéas)

Monet had meant to show his water-lily canvases in 1907, then withdrew, then withdrew again in 1908. In May of that year he told his dealer the paintings were not good enough, and by his own account destroyed about 30 of them. This one survived. It belongs to the upright group he painted in 1907, where the pond is tipped almost vertical and the surface carries nothing but reflected sky, cloud and willow, with no bank and no horizon to tell you which way is up. The exhibition finally opened at Durand-Ruel in Paris in May 1909 with 48 canvases, and this was among them. It reached Houston in 1968 as a gift from Mrs Harry C. Hanszen.