The Water Lilies is a series of around 250 oil paintings by the French Impressionist Claude Monet, and were the main focus of his work during the last thirty or so years of his life. They depict the lily pond he created in his garden for the specific purpose of painting it.

In November 1918 Monet gifted eight huge canvases to the nation. In 1921 work began on converting the L'Orangerie building on the edge of the Tuileries gardens to house the canvases, and the exhibit was opened to the public in May 1927, shortly after Monet's death.

All the paintings are 2m tall, and they vary in width between 6m and 17m wide. This image depicts one of the larger paintings.