Claude Monet’s Impressionist water lilies painting expected to fetch US$40 million at auction
- The canvas, from 1917-19, is part of the famous Grandes Decorations series of paintings depicting Monet’s water lily pond at Giverny, which he began in 1914
- The work will be part of the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on May 12 and will go on view in Taipei on April 26 before returning to Sotheby’s New York galleries from May 1
One of Claude Monet’s “monumental” water lilies paintings will go under the hammer in New York for an estimate in the region of US$40 million.
Le Bassin aux Nympheas has been described by auction house Sotheby’s as “among the most iconic and celebrated Impressionist images.”
The canvas, from 1917-19, is part of the famous Grandes Decorations series of paintings depicting Monet’s water lily pond at Giverny, which he began in 1914.
The series was groundbreaking in its nearly abstract treatment of the pond water’s surface and its reflections, taking Monet’s paintings of the tranquil lily pond in a radical new direction, and the works were twice the size of his earlier Water Lilies.
The late works are considered an important bridge between Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism, as practised several generations later by artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.
It will be part of the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on May 12 and will go on view in Taipei on April 26 before returning to Sotheby’s New York galleries for exhibition by appointment from May 1.