In 1898 Claude Monet added a water garden to his Giverny property and he started​to paint a few water lilles. He will expand this series until the end of his life and create 250 paintings with this theme. His comment is based on his quote “I picked up some more impossible things to do: water with herbs undulating in the background. Beyond painting and gardening, I am good for nothing. My most beautiful masterpiece is my garden ".

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In this Post, Monet shares details of his first paintings in a grid composition. His close friend, the politician Georges Clemenceau who will be key in the project of the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris after WWI, encourages him to develop the series.

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Renoir was a close friend of Monet and his comment is based on one of his quotes “An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature“.

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Sources:

Ross King,Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies, 2017

Charles F. Stuckey, Nymphéas, Paris, könemann, 2000