The Bridge over the Water Lily Pond

Claude Monet

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Keywords: BridgeWaterLilyPond

Work Overview

The Japanese Bridge (The Bridge over the Water-Lily Pond)
Claude Monet
Date: 1900
Style: Impressionism
Series: The Japanese Bridge
Genre: landscape
89.8 x 101 cm (35 3/8 x 39 3/4 in.)


In 1893, three years after buying property at Giverny, Claude Monet began transforming the marshy ground behind his home into a pond, on the narrow end of which he built a Japanese-style wood bridge. Adding both exotic and domestic plantings, including his famous water lilies, the artist created the garden that would be one of his principal subjects for the rest of his life. Water Lily Pond was among the 18 similar versions of the motif that he made in 1899–1900; their common theme was the mingling of the lilies with reflections of other vegetation on the pool’s surface.


This work is featured in the online catalogue Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, the first volume in the Art Institute’s scholarly digital series on the Impressionist circle. The catalogue offers in-depth curatorial and technical entries on 47 artworks by Claude Monet in the museum’s collection; entries feature interactive and layered high-resolution imaging, previously unpublished technical photographs, archival materials, and documentation relating to each artwork.