Nymphéas (Water Lilies)

The studies behind the murals

Claude Monet settled at Giverny in 1883 and in 1893 dug the pond whose water lilies he would paint for the rest of his life, some 250 canvases in all. After a celebrated 1909 show of pond views, he hardly painted for almost five years. His wife Alice died in 1911, his son Jean in 1914, and in 1912 he learned he had a cataract.

In the spring of 1914, at 73, he went back to work with a vast ambition: mural-scale paintings of the pond, the Grandes Decorations. In 1915 he began building a huge studio to hold them. Between 1914 and 1917 he painted some sixty Nympheas on a scale he had never tried before, using them to test ideas and effects for the murals.

He treated those canvases as private exploration. He neither exhibited nor sold them. This painting was executed around 1914 to 1917, in those years, and it passed by descent from Monet to his son.

How to identify it

The painting is oil on canvas, 175 by 135.4 cm (68 7/8 by 53 3/8 in), a tall, upright format rather than the long horizontals of many late pond scenes. It bears a stamped signature, 'Claude Monet,' on the reverse and again on the stretcher, rather than a signature in the artist's hand.

It is catalogued as number 1789 in Daniel Wildenstein's Monet catalogue raisonne, in both the 1985 and 1996 editions, and it is illustrated in Jean-Dominique Rey and Denis Rouart's 2008 book on the complete water lily series.

It has carried several titles. When first shown in Basel in 1949 it was called Nympheas jaunes et bleuatres (yellow and bluish water lilies). In 1957 it was shown as Etude pour les nympheas I, in 1963 as Studie zu den Seerosen I and in 1966 as Nympheas I. Most reports date it 1914-1917; one report dated it 1914-1915.

From Michel Monet to Basel to Sydell Miller

Monet died in December 1926. The painting passed by descent to his son Michel Monet at Giverny. On September 28, 1949, Michel sold it to Heinrich Wassermann of Basel, Switzerland. That year it was shown at the Kunsthalle Basel in an exhibition of Monet, Pissarro and Sisley.

By 1957 it belonged to another Basel collector, Dr. Walter S. Schiess. It stayed in Swiss hands, passing by descent in his family until at least 1992. Along the way it was exhibited in Basel in 1957 and 1962, in Schaffhausen in 1963, in Recklinghausen, Germany, in 1966, and twice at the Kunstmuseum Basel, in 1986 and 1997.

In 2001 it was acquired by Sydell Miller. Miller and her husband, Arnold, had founded the false eyelash company Ardell and in 1980 co-founded Matrix Essentials, which became one of the largest makers of salon products. In 1994, two years after Arnold's death, she sold the company for $400 million and turned to philanthropy and collecting. She was a major supporter of the Cleveland Clinic.

Seventeen minutes in New York

Miller died in 2024 at 86; reports differ on whether she died in February or March. On September 19, 2024, her collection was announced for sale in New York, estimated at about $200 million in all, with the Monet as its most valuable lot at around $60 million. It was the painting's first time at auction. The collection toured London, Paris, Taipei, Los Angeles and Hong Kong before the sale.

On the evening of November 18, 2024, the Monet was offered as lot 8, with a guarantee from the auction house and an irrevocable bid. Three bidders contested it through 34 bids over about 17 minutes, the longest bidding war of the night. The auctioneer finally told the room, 'We do have to move on here. There are other lots and other vendors.'

The hammer fell at $59 million, or $65.5 million with fees, to a telephone client of the auction house's deputy chairman for Asia. All 25 Miller lots in the evening sale found buyers, for $215.6 million, above the high estimate of $205 million. One report, at odds with the others, described the Monet as separate from the Miller collection; the sale listings and most reports place it in her collection.

A test of the market

The sale came after two years of a downturn in the art market. The week's New York auctions offered about 1,200 works with combined estimates of $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion, a 77 percent drop from November 2022.

The Monet was the top lot of an evening that totaled about $308 million to $309 million across the Miller sale and a Modern art sale that followed, depending on the report. A year earlier, a 1917-1919 Le Bassin aux Nympheas had sold in New York for $74 million, and in 2018 Nympheas en fleur of about 1914-1917 brought about $85 million with fees.

The numbers

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

175 x 135.4 cm (68 7/8 x 53 3/8 in)

Catalogue raisonne

Wildenstein no. 1789 (1985 and 1996 editions)

Date

About 1914-1917

Owner

Private; the 2024 buyer was not publicly named

Timeline

1. Apr 1883

   Monet moves to Giverny.

2. 1893

   Monet creates his water lily pond.

3. 1912

   Monet is diagnosed with a cataract.

4. 1914

   Monet returns to painting in the spring, beginning the mural-scale water lily project.

5. 1915

   Construction begins on Monet's large new studio.

6. 1917

   Latest date given for this painting (about 1914-1917).

7. Dec 5, 1926

   Monet dies at Giverny; the painting passes to his son Michel.

8. Sep 28, 1949

   Michel Monet sells the painting to Heinrich Wassermann of Basel.

9. 1949

   First exhibited, at the Kunsthalle Basel.

10. 1957

    Owned by Dr. Walter S. Schiess of Basel and shown at the Kunsthalle Basel.

11. 1986

    Exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Basel in a show of Monet's water lilies.

12. 1992

    Still in a Swiss private collection, by descent.

13. 2001

    Acquired by Sydell Miller.

14. 2024

    Sydell Miller dies at 86.

15. Sep 19, 2024

    Miller collection announced; the Monet is estimated at about $60 million.

16. Nov 18, 2024

    Sold at auction in New York for $65.5 million with fees after a 17-minute contest.

The world in 1914

• Jun 28, 1914

  Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo.

• Aug 15, 1914

  The Panama Canal is inaugurated.

• Sep 5, 1914

  The First Battle of the Marne begins, halting the German advance into France.

• Feb 21, 1916

  The Battle of Verdun begins in France.

• Apr 24, 1916

  The Easter Rising begins in Dublin.

• May 31, 1916

  The Battle of Jutland, the war's only large-scale clash of battleships, begins.

• Jul 1, 1916

  The Battle of the Somme begins, with 57,470 British Empire casualties on its first day.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Nymphéas (Water Lilies) is number 10 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (10 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Monet considered his water lilies of 1914-1917 private studies and neither exhibited nor sold them in his lifetime.
• The painting has been shown under at least four different titles, including Etude pour les nympheas I.
• It belonged to Basel collectors, and later their descendants, from 1949 until at least 1992.
• Its 2024 sale was its first time at auction, more than a century after it was painted.
• The bidding drew 34 bids over about 17 minutes, the longest contest of the night.
• Sydell Miller built her fortune on false eyelashes and salon products before becoming a major art collector.