Speakasso › Paintings › Water Lilies
Water Lilies
Claude Monet, 1914
No bank, no sky, only the surface of the pond at Giverny, where islands of leaves with pink and white blossoms float and clouds and willows are mirrored in the water. Monet dug the pond himself and won permission to divert a river into it, to the outrage of his neighbours. For the last thirty years of his life he painted almost nothing else, around 250 canvases. This 1906 version is one of the clearest: the horizon has vanished and the viewer seems to lean right over the water.
What is in the painting
- Rafts of leaves. Round patches of foliage drift in clusters, blossoms between them.
- Mirrored sky. Pale reflected clouds below, dark green reflected trees above.
- No shore, no sky. The whole picture is nothing but the water's surface.
Did you know? Monet employed several gardeners, one of whom rinsed the dust off the lily pads every morning so they would shine.
About the painting
- Artist
- Claude Monet (1840–1926)
- Year
- 1914
- Style
- Impressionism
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 89.9 × 94.1 cm
- Where to see it
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
How to describe it in Speakasso
In Speakasso you describe the painting in your own words and an AI draws it again. These words are forbidden in this round — each one costs 15 points:
A description that scores high
A close-up view straight down onto a calm, glassy surface with no shore and no horizon. Round clusters of flat green pads drift across it like little rafts, with pink and white blooms between them. Pale mirrored clouds glow in the lower part, and dark green upside-down willows fill the top. Soft blues, lilac, greens and pink in hazy daylight. Loose, quick, dabbed brushstrokes, like a soft blurry oil painting.
The tricky part: Say you are looking straight down at a still, glassy surface, and call the upside-down clouds and willows mirror images.
The method behind it: what is painted first, then where things are, then colour and light, then the style. Read the full guide
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