Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas

Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas, 1919

Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas (Water Lily Pond; 1919) is one of the series of Water Lilies paintings by French impressionist artist Claude Monet. It is an oil on canvas painting measuring 100.4 × 201 cm (39½ × 79⅛ in).

Exhibited

• Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Monet, January - February 1921, no. 44 or 45.
• Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Art and Science in Gardens, June - July 1922, no. 101.
• New York, Durand Ruel Galleries, Waterlilies by Claude Monet, February 1924, no. 1-4.
• Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Hommage à Claude Monet, 1926. Philadelphia, Arts Club, Monet, Memorial Exhibition, April 1927, no. 6.
• Sotheby's, New York, May 1971, (Auction Exhibition)
• London, Christie's, June 2008, (Auction Exhibition)
• Painted in 1919 in Giverny, it has been seen in public just once in the past 80 years.

Provenance

• 1919 - acquired from the artist in November by Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
• 1921 - in January, is noted to be owned jointly by Bernheim-Jeune and Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris
• 1922 - owned solely by Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris (nos. 11874 and D13373), by 1922.
• Unknown - Jean d'Alayer (Mme d'Alayer, née Marie-Louise Durand-Ruel), Paris
• Unknown - Sam Salz, Inc., New York.
• 1968 - Mr and Mrs Norton Simon, Los Angeles, circa 1968
• 1971 - Sotheby's, New York, 5 May 1971, lot 41.
• 1971 - Mrs Elizabeth Clementine Miller Tangeman, Columbus, Indiana, acquired from the above for $320,000
• 1993 - J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller, acquired from the above, August 1993.
• 2008 - Christie's, London, 24 June 2008, lot 16. for £36.5m, overall price rose to over £40m with taxes.
• 2008 - Arts & Management International Ltd. for Private Collector

Articles on this work

• M. Ciolkowska, 'Monet: His Garden, His World', in International Studio, February 1923, no. 309, pp. 371-377 (illustrated p. 378).
• D. Rouart, J.-D. Rey & R. Maillard, Monet: Nymphéas, Paris, 1972, (illustrated p. 174).
• M. Hoog, Monet, Paris, 1978, no. 80 (illustrated).
• R. Gordon & C.F. Stuckey, 'Blossoms and Blunders: Monet and the State', in Art in America, January - February 1979, p. 110.
• D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet: biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. IV, 1899-1926, Lausanne and Paris, 1985, no. 1890, p. 288 (illustrated p. 289).
• D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet: catalogue raisonné, vol. IV, Cologne, 1996, no. 1890 (illustrated p. 897).
• S. Muchnic, Odd Man In: Norton Simon and the Pursuit of Culture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998, pp. 192-193.
• P. Hayes Tucker, 'The Revolution in the Garden: Monet in the Twentieth Century', in exh. cat., Monet in the Twentieth Century, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999, pp. 79 and 218.

Posthumous Auction sales

• 1971 - Sotheby's, New York, May 1971, $320,000
• 2008 - Christie's, London, June 2008, $80,451,178 becoming an auction record for a painting by Claude Monet, and the second highest price for a work of art in Europe.

It was sold on 24 June 2008 at Christie's London auction rooms for £40.9m,[1] a world record for a Monet painting.[2]

See also

• Nymphaeaceae (water lilies)

External links

• Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism, exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on this work