Nympheas (Waterlilies) by Claude Monet Postcard

“Imagine a circular room whose walls…would be entirely filled by a horizon of water spotted with these plants, the walls of transparency sometimes green, sometimes almost mauve, the calm and silence of the still water reflecting the flowering display; the tones are vague, deliciously nuanced, as delicate as a dream.” 

In 1897 Monet expressed these ideas about the project that dominated his last years. He worked out his epic concept on huge canvases that convey the effects of varying light conditions on the pond filled with water lilies in his garden at Giverny, north of Paris. Painted as a gift to the French nation, several long water lily panels hang in a circular room at the Orangerie des Tuileries in Paris. This painting is one of many preliminary studies for those panels.