Iconic Water Lilies by Claude Monet on Auction at Sotheby’s

Claude Monet1840 – 1926, Nymphéas (Water Lilies) 1906, oil on canvas,88.5 by 100cm. 34 3/4 by 39 3/8 in. Estimated at £20-30 million/ $33-50 million . Image courtesy of Sotheby’s

ART AUCTION

Excitement grows among art collectors as Claude Monet’s Water Lilies goes on auction at Sotheby’s London

LONDON— The recent announcement that Claude Monet’s Nymphéas (Water Lilies) of 1906 will be auctioned during Sotheby’s London Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale is generating a lot of excitement across the globe.  “This is great news,” said one art collector.  Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale will take place on Monday 23^rd June 2014.

Claude Monet’s Water Lilies

Claude Monet’s Nymphéas (Water Lilies) has an estimate of £20-30 million/ $33-50 million. The 1906 oil on canvas is instantly recognizable and revered the world over. Monet’s Nymphéas paintings are among the most iconic and famous paintings from the turn of the century. The profound impact of the series on the evolution of modern art marks them out as Monet’s greatest achievement.

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Claude Monet included the Nymphéas painting in his seminal exhibition held at the Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, in 1909. The show unveiled Monet’s Water Lilies paintings in a show dedicated purely to this subject. The legendary art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel singled out and acquired the painting.  Durand-Ruel championed the Impressionists and represented Monet, among many other of the greatest artists of his time. Water Lilies remained in his personal collection throughout his lifetime.

Monet’s Water Lilies has since been widely and exhibited at some of the world’s most prestigious international museums. It has been in shows at the  Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris.  Since 2011, the painting has been on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. It is this painting, together with the others in this series, that eventually led to Monet’s Les Grandes décorations which were painted between 1914-26, now in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.  

Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Co-Head, Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide comments:

Impressionism’s greatest genius was Claude Monet and his finest works were the increasingly abstracted paintings he made of his lily pond at Giverny near Paris. Museum-quality paintings of this importance are the driving force in the art market now and this work’s square format and exquisite coloration has already attracted much attention when exhibited internationally in the lead-up to the sale.

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