Waterlilies

Waterlilies from 1903 at the Dayton Art Institute shows the pond subject at an intermediate moment in its development — the composition closer to the water surface than the early Japanese bridge pictures but not yet as radical as the late close-up panels. The Dayton Art Institute's French collection provides a Midwestern American context for this work, part of the sustained American acquisition of Monet's water garden paintings. The 1903 date places this canvas in Monet's studio finishing period for both the London and Giverny series — a remarkably productive phase.

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.