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Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

Artist: Claude Monet (1840–1926)
Date: 1899
Dimensions: 92.7 x 73.7 cm
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States

This painting shows the arched Japanese-style footbridge that Monet built over the water-lily pond in his garden at Giverny, surrounded by lush willows, bamboo and grasses, with water lilies floating below.

A closer look

Monet bought the land beyond his house in 1893, diverted a small river to create the pond, planted it with water lilies and built the green wooden bridge, inspired by the Japanese prints he collected. Here the bridge spans the canvas like a curve of green, while the water, covered with floating pads and pink and white flowers, reflects the foliage. The surface is entirely filled with greens and touches of colour, with no sky, drawing the viewer into an enclosed, peaceful world. Monet painted the bridge about a dozen times in 1899.

History of the painting

Monet sold the painting through his dealers soon after it was painted in his garden at Giverny. It belonged to Louisine Havemeyer and her husband Henry O. Havemeyer, the New York sugar magnate, who, advised by their friend Mary Cassatt, built one of the greatest collections of French 19th-century painting in America. When Louisine Havemeyer died in 1929 she bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, together with nearly two thousand other works.

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