Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas

Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas (Water Lily Pond; 1919) is one of the series of Water Lilies paintings by French impressionist artist Claude Monet.

Exhibited

 * Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Monet, January - February 1921, no. 44 or 45.
 * Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Art and Science in Gardens, June - July 1922, no. 101.
 * New York, Durand Ruel Galleries, Waterlilies by Claude Monet, February 1924, no. 1-4.
 * Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Hommage à Claude Monet, 1926. Philadelphia, Arts Club, Monet, Memorial Exhibition, April 2001
 * Sotheby's, New York, May 1971, (Auction Exhibition)
 * London, Christie's, June 2008, (Auction Exhibition)
 * Painted in 1919 in Giverny, it has been seen in public just once in the past 80 years.

Provenance

 * 1919 - acquired from the artist in November by Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
 * 1921 - in January, is noted to be owned jointly by Bernheim-Jeune and Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris
 * 1922 - owned solely by Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris (nos. 11874 and D13373), by 1922.
 * Unknown - Jean d'Alayer (Mme d'Alayer, née Marie-Louise Durand-Ruel), Paris
 * Unknown - Sam Salz, Inc., New York.
 * 1968 - Mr and Mrs Norton Simon, Los Angeles, c. 1968
 * 1971 - Sotheby's, New York, 5 May 1971, lot 41.
 * 1971 - Mrs Elizabeth Clementine Miller Tangeman, Columbus, Indiana, acquired from the above for $320,000
 * 1993 - J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller, acquired from the above, August 1993.
 * 2008 - Christie's, London, 24 June 2008, lot 16. for £36.5m, overall price rose to over £40m with taxes.
 * 2008 - Arts & Management International Ltd. for Private Collector

Articles on this work

 * M. Ciolkowska, "Monet: His Garden, His World", in International Studio, February 1923, no. 309, pp. 371–377 (illustrated p. 378).
 * D. Rouart, J.-D. Rey & R. Maillard, Monet: Nymphéas, Paris, 1972, (illustrated p. 174).
 * M. Hoog, Monet, Paris, 1978, no. 80 (illustrated).
 * R. Gordon & C.F. Stuckey, "Blossoms and Blunders: Monet and the State", in Art in America, January - February 1979, p. 110.
 * D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet: biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. IV, 1899-1926, Lausanne and Paris, 1985, no. 1890, p. 288 (illustrated p. 289).
 * D. Wildenstein, Claude Monet: catalogue raisonné, vol. IV, Cologne, 1996, no. 1890 (illustrated p. 897).
 * S. Muchnic, Odd Man In: Norton Simon and the Pursuit of Culture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998, pp. 192–193.
 * P. Hayes Tucker, "The Revolution in the Garden: Monet in the Twentieth Century", in exh. cat., Monet in the Twentieth Century, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999, pp. 79 and 218.

Posthumous Auction sales

 * 1971 - Sotheby's, New York, May 1971, $320,000
 * 2008 - Christie's, London, June 2008, $80,451,178 becoming an auction record for a painting by Claude Monet, and the second highest price for a work of art in Europe.

It was sold on 24 June 2008 at Christie's London auction rooms for £40.9m,[1] a world record for a Monet painting.[2]