“[With] the delicate brushwork, exquisitely subtle colour harmonies and expansive centreless compositions of the Water Lilies . . . Monet’s aim was still the presentation of an immediate experience of nature, but his water-lily garden at Giverny held for him intimations of infinity and his contemplative visions of it give the illusion of a glimpse into an endless whole. His almost spaceless views downwards, on to and through the surface of the pool become shimmering, impalpable curtains of colour. The natural world disappears into near-abstract patterns of vibrating light and atmosphere.”

—Hugh Honour & John Fleming, from The Visual Arts: A History, 1982.