Monet’s 'The Water-Lily Pond': A Mindful Impression of Peace

Experience the National Gallery's collection like never before with our new exclusive 'National Treasures' film series. A key strand of the National Gallery's Bicentenary celebrations, we will discover 12 loaned paintings from the Gallery's collection across partner venues throughout the UK, providing expert commentary on these iconic masterpieces.

Among the most iconic masterpieces in Western modern art, Claude Monet’s (1840–1926) water lily paintings came about from a ‘revelation of the enchantment of [his] pond.’ Monet created a series of over 250 of these paintings, capturing the everchanging light at many different times of day, over three decades. Four of these are in the National Gallery’s collection.

Curator Chiara di Stefano gives us a closer look at one of these pictures, 'The Water-Lily Pond' (1899). It evokes silence and a dreamlike quality, with peaceful and calm, still waters. She shows us in this film how Monet’s series of pictures is not about transience, but permanence.

In 1883, Monet rented a house and garden in Giverny, Northern France. He was passionate about gardening. Ten years later, he acquired an adjoining plot of land, with a pond. It was here he grew his water lilies. Obsessed with the reflective quality of the water, one of Monet’s gardeners would remove dust, pollen and leaves from the surface each day. Unlike the Western cultural influences on his flower garden, his water garden was full of Eastern influence. The shape of the bridge came from Japanese prints he loved.