Monet, the father of French impressionist painting, devoted twenty-five years to a series of paintings of the water lilies that floated in the pond of his lavis

including the destruction of two works in a fire in 1958 - and underscores the resonance of these paintings with the art and artists of the last half-century."

Claude Monet's water lily paintings are among the most iconic and beloved works of art of the past century. Yet these entrancing images were created at a time o

Published in connection with an exhibition held at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Apr. 9-Aug. 7, 2011, the Saint Louis Art Museum, Oct. 2, 2011-Jan. 22, 2012,

"In 1928, the former French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau published Claude Monet : les nymphéas (The water-lilies), a memoir of his longtime friend. Bruce