Christie's will present the splendid work “Ninlilies” by at auction next September Claudio Monet. Created 125 years ago, it remained in the Monet family for many years and is now offered from an illustrious private collection.
It is one of Monet's very first works to take as its subject his beloved water lily pond in his home in Giverny
Notably, four other works from this pioneering Water Lilies series are now owned by renowned museums around the world, including the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Kagoshima City Museum of Art and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna di Roma, underlining the exceptional rarity and caliber of this painting. With its remarkable dimensions of 73,3 x 101 cm, this famous work is offered with an estimate of HK $200.000.000 – 280.000.000 / US $25.000.000 – 35.000.000 / EU €22.468.000 – 31.455.200. XNUMX.
This work and the other seven paintings in Monet's first Water Lilies series vary in format, size, color, and workmanship as Monet reveled in the myriad painterly potentials of this new motif. Immersing the viewer in a shimmering aquatic world, Water Lilies is a sublime work of this pioneering series, which marks Monet's first explorations of the theme that would dominate his output in the twentieth century.
This painting introduces one of the most important and radical aspects of Monet's Water Lilies: the elimination of the horizon line
Waterlilies
Stamped with the signature “Claude Monet” (Jul 1819b; bottom right);
Stamp with signature again “Claude Monet” (Jul 1819b; on the reverse)
oil painting on canvas
28 ⅞ x 39 ¾ inches (73,3 x 101 cm.)
Painted around 1897-1899
His tightly focused scene immerses the viewer in the center of the pond, removing all other peripheral details to focus entirely on the constantly changing relationships between water, atmosphere, and light that transform the surface of the pond with each passing moment. These painterly qualities would become central to each phase of Monet's Water Lilies series and would exert a fundamental influence on subsequent generations of artists.
