How many water lilies paintings did Claude Monet create?

Can you guess? well Claude Monet did approximately 250 of them. Impressive right?

He was inspired by his water garden at his home in Giverny, and started the series in 1897-98 and kept working on it for the last thirty years of his life.

At first the paintings were made on intimate size canvases and later on he worked on huge ones to create an immersive experience. His most famous ones being at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris.

Claude Monet, Waterlilies. Sunset, 1914-1918. Canvas, H. 1.97 m L. 5.94 m. Musée de l'Orangerie by I, Sailko

In the Post painting "Claude's nympheas", I made a focus on three early paintings he did in 1898. Monet shares details of his paintings in a grid composition.

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 ".

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.

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“.

Sources:

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

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