Claude Monet suffered with cataracts toward the end of his life. In comparison to earlier Water Lily paintings this version is softer: Color and light create form without definite linear restraint. Monet loved to paint the same scene at different times of the year to capture the changes of color and light. The cool blue and green hues of this painting for example indicate an autumn dusk as opposed to a midsummer’s day.

The garden in Giverny was the focus of Monet’s work until his death in 1926. Monet’s Water Lilies collection of oil paintings amount to in excess of two hundred and fifty oil paintings which today hang in museums and private collections all over the world. The original of this particular version now housed at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.