Nympheas, or Water Lilies, is a study for a group of larger paintings Claude Monet painted between
1919 and 1926. Some of the most famous paintings in the world, the water lilies provide a
definite feeling of color and movement. Each distinct brushstroke blurs into another. Monet painted the
impression of light by laying down blues, greens, and lilacs, with brush and palette knife, alongside or
on top of one another. The paint is applied in thick layers and its texture is real to the eye and would feel
rough to the hand. Always, Monet strove to acknowledge the painting’s two-dimensional surface—here
through the surface of the pond, which mirrors the three-dimensional world.