Waterlilies

Waterlilies from 1903 at the Dayton Art Institute shows the water lily pond at an intermediate stage in the series' development — the composition beginning to eliminate spatial anchors other than the water surface itself, the horizon still present but less emphasized than in the earlier bridge compositions. By 1903 Monet was moving toward the close-range view that would define the mature Nymphéas, the camera-like approach to the pond's surface that eventually eliminated sky, bank, and architectural reference entirely. The Dayton Art Institute holds an important collection of European and American art, and its Nymphéas canvas from 1903 allows the Ohio institution to demonstrate one of the canonical moments in the development of modern abstraction — the point at which Monet's representational subject began its long dissolution toward pure color and gesture. The comparison available through reproduction between this 1903 canvas and the late Orangerie panels demonstrates how far and how rapidly the Nymphéas project developed across the following two decades.

Lily pads of varied sizes drift across a surface that reflects sky and overhanging vegetation in loosely applied strokes. Monet handles the boundary between lily pad and water with particular delicacy — the pads defined clearly enough to read as solid forms while their reflections in the surrounding water blur into the atmospheric field.