As part of his extensive gardening plans at Giverny, Monet had a new pond dug out and planted with lilies in 1893, but he did not paint this motif until 1899. Thereafter the subject dominated his art. In a large-scale decorative series, he worked continuously for more than twenty years to capture in paint every observation, impression, and reflection of the flowers and water. By the mid-1910s, Monet had achieved a completely new, fluid and almost audacious style of painting in which the water-lily pond became the point of departure for an almost abstract art. This work, begun by Monet in the late teens and kept in his studio until his death, is one of the most complete and confidently executed pictures of the late series.

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