Water Lillies

A pond spreads across the canvas, its surface scattered with lily pads and flowering plants, while the water itself holds faint traces of overhanging trees and open sky, all painted in gentle, softened colors that blur the line between what floats above and what is mirrored below. This piece, titled Water Lillies, was completed in 1906 using oil on canvas, and it is held today at the Art Institute of Chicago. Claude Monet, who lived from 1840 to 1926 and worked in France, became associated with Impressionism, and among his recognized works is Impression, Sunrise. Looking closely at the pond, one notices how the reflected sky and foliage seem to dissolve into the water, so that the painted surface feels less like a boundary and more like a continuous drift of color and light.