Water Lilies|Claude Monet |Search Collection | The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 18 April 2025

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On Display

Permanent collection

Claude Monet

Paris, 1840 - Giverny, 1926

Water Lilies

Date	1916
Materials and Techniques	oil on canvas
Size（cm）	200.5 x 201
Inscriptions	Signed and dated lower left: Claude Monet 1916
Credit Line	Matsukata Collection
Standard ref.	Wildenstein 1800; M776
Category	Paintings
Collection Number	P.1959-0151

After turning fifty, Claude Monet started to build a garden at his residence at Giverny in northern France. He planted trees and flowers and cultivated water lilies in ponds, which he painted repeatedly. Constant changes in the water surface, according to the weather and time of day, sustained the artist’s interest. When this work was produced, he had already been painting water lilies for nearly twenty years. The expression of the flowers and the shadows on the water, boldly eschewing details, has the innovative Monet anticipating the Expressionists and abstract art of the future.　Source: Gallery label, October 2016)

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe, ca. December 1921 [see letter from Léonce Bénédite to (Claude Monet), dated 11 December 1921, in the Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris (copy in NMWA curatorial file)]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.

Exhibition History

1924: Exposition Claude Monet, organisée au bénéfice des Victimes de la Catastrophe du Japon, Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 4 January 1924 - 18 January 1924, cat. no. 19
1947: De David à Cézanne, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussel, 0 November 1947 - 0 January 1948, cat. no. 115, pl. 61, repr.
1958: Paysages de France, Musée de Rouen, 0 1958 - 0 1958, cat. no. 138
1982: Monet, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 9 October 1982 - 28 November 1982, cat. no. 55
2013: Monet, An Eye for Landscapes: Innovation in 19th Century French Landscape Paintings, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 7 December 2013 - 9 March 2014, cat. no. 76, col. repr.
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 1, col. repr.
2022: In Dialogue with Nature - from Friedrich, Monet and Van Gogh to Richter, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 4 June 2022 - 11 September 2022, cat. no. 99
2024: Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 12 March 2024 - 12 May 2024

Bibliography

1948: Reuterswärd, Oscar. Monet. Stockholm, 1948, p. 265, repr.
1955: La Collection Matsukata, Tokyo, Asahi- Shimbun, 1955 (Japanese), no. 17, col. repr.
1959: Ito, R. Monet's "Water Lilies" in the Matsukata Collection. Mizue: a monthly review of the fine arts. no. 649, June 1959 (in Japanese) , pp. 75, 77, col. repr.
1959: Mizue: a monthly review of the fine arts. no. 651, Special Number, July 1959 (in Japanese), repr.
1959: Zusetsu Sekai Bunkashi Taikei. vol. 10, Tokyo, Kadokawa Shoten, 1959, p. 225, pl. 22, repr.
1959: Mizue: a monthly review of the fine arts. no. 656, December 1959 (in Japanese), p. 23. repr.
1961: Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-209.
1961: Tominaga, Soichi. Inshouha no Gaka tachi. Sekai Bijyutsu Zenshu. vol. 36, Tokyo, Kadokawa Shoten, 1961, p. 240, pl. 5, col. repr. (detail).
1968: Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 2, 1968, pp. 22-23, no. 37, repr.
1971: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 56, col. repr.
1972: Rouart, D.; Rey, J. D.; Maillard, Robert. Monet: Nymphéas. Paris, 1972, pp. 65, repr., 116.
1973: Tanaka, Hidemichi. L'inspiration artistique de Nymphéas de Monet. Bulletin Annuel du Musée National d’Art Occidental. No.6 (1971), 1973, pp. 33-43.
1975: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 40, col. repr.
1978: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1978 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 47, col. repr.
1979: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of Paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 191, repr.
1985: Wildenstein, Daniel. Claude Monet, biographie et catalogue raisonné. tome 4, Lausanne/ Paris, 1985, pp. 256-257, repr., 417 (lettre no. 2545); tome 5, 1991, pp. 53, 215 (lettre no. 3061).
1990: The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 1067.
1994: Levine, Steven Z. Monet, Narcissus, and Self-reflection: The Modernist Myth of the Self. Chicago, 1994, p. 263, fig. 114.
1995: Tucker, Paul, Hayes. Claude Monet: Life and Art. New Haven/ London, 1995, pp. 203-204, repr.
1996: Wildenstein, Daniel. Monet: Catalogue raisonné. vol. 4, Cologne, Taschen, 1996, pp. 849-850, cat. no. 1800, repr. color.
2006: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 78, col. repr.
2009: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 78, col. repr.
2013: MONET, An Eye For Landscapes: Innovation in 19th Century French Landscape Paintings(exh. cat.). Tokyo, TBS, c2013, cat. no. 76, col. repr.
2013: Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 89, col. repr.
2018: The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 1: Paintings, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 776, col. repr.
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 60-61, 350, cat. no. 1, col. repr.
2022: In Dialogue with Nature: from Friedrich, Monet and Van Gogh to Richter (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi; Shinfuji, Atsushi; Yomiuri Shimbun, Museum Exhibition Department, eds. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2022, pp. 184, 263, cat. no. 99, cal. repr.
2024: Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years (exh. cat.). Shinfuji, Atsushi; Mochizuki, Kaoru, eds. [Tokyo], Culture Convenience Club; Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 2024, pp. 222, 308, col. repr.

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