The oil painting was created around 1917 to 1919, size 100×200 cm. When Claude Monet (1840-1926) died, Michel Monet – his son and first wife – inherited the work, then the painting passed through the hands of a few collectors.

Water lilies appear a lot in Claude Monet’s works at the end of his life, with more than 200 paintings. During his youth and middle age, he mainly explored the themes of the city of Paris and human life. In 1890, when he became famous, the artist spent 22,000 francs to buy a large plot of land in Giverny, converted it into a pond, and planted around the pond with trees such as azalea, Japanese apples, and cherries.

The beautiful garden became Claude Monet’s “separate world”. At the end of his life, he spent a lot of time here observing and drawing about the weather, the changes in the four seasons, the changes in light in the morning and the afternoon… From then on, the artist produced a series of works associated with adjacent to the Japanese garden, pond, and bridge in Giverny.

Claude Monet often immersed himself in the scenery at the water lily pond, watching the sunlight while composing, capturing moments of nature. One of Claude Monet’s artistic specialties is depicting water surfaces in different lighting conditions.

Claude Monet’s paintings are mostly expensive. In 2018, a water lily painting was hammered by Christie’s at nearly 85 million USD. The record for the most expensive painting by Claude Monet belongs to Meules , owned by a German billionaire Hasso Plattner bought for 110 million USD.

Claude Monet was born in 1840 in Paris, France, the second child of a business family. During his youth, Monet drew caricatures, then became a student of famous artist Eugéne Boudin. Monet is a pioneer painter who founded French Impressionism. In 86 years, Monet created 2,000 paintings, many of which were done right in his garden. In 1912, Monet suffered from cataracts and weakened health but still tried to compose. The artist died in 1926 of lung cancer.