Water-Lilies, Setting Sun

The artwork

The writer Marcel Proust saw paintings like this one in 1909, at an exhibition in Paris, and remembered them when he described the water lilies in Swann's Way. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The pink and yellow rays of the sunset shimmering on the water, among the lily pads.
• Warm, deep tones, intimate in a sitting room or a bedroom.
• A gift for anyone who loves French literature.

Proust is the author of In Search of Lost Time, and Swann's Way is its first volume. In May 1909 Monet showed 48 paintings of the water lily pond at his house in Giverny at the Paris gallery of his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel; by the end of the year 19 had been sold. Proust saw them, and they are the source of the pages on water lilies in his novel.

In this painting we look down from above onto the surface of the pond. The pink and yellow rays of the setting sun shimmer on the water, and the eye keeps moving between the surface and the depths. At lower left a clump of plants marks the bank: according to a photograph of Monet's studio, it may have been added later.

Monet kept the painting in his studio until 1923, and may have reworked it during those years. Today it is in the National Gallery in London, bequeathed in 2006 by the collector Simon Sainsbury.

In a library or a sitting room it brings the golden light of the end of the day. It is the right gift for anyone who loves Proust, or who stops in the evening to watch the sunset.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass