One of the leading French Impressionists, Monet began his career by painting mainly landscapes and cityscapes in which color and light were his primary concerns. By the 1890s he began to work in series, depicting the same subject in various seasons or at different hours of the day, to demonstrate how changes in atmosphere can affect the viewer's impression of the motif.

      A favorite theme during the last two decades of Monet's life was the water-lily pond in his garden at Giverny. The Worcester canvas shows only the surface of the pond with its clusters of water lilies floating amid the reflection of sky and trees. Conveying the artist's idea of nature's ever-changing image, the indefinite and freely painted forms also point the way toward the more expressive painting techniques that have dominated much of twentieth-century art.

-JAW