Claude Monet

Claude Monet
Le Bassin aux nymphéas, reflets verts, ca. 1920/26
Oil on canvas, 200 x 425 cm
Signature stamp on the back of the stretcher
Wildenstein no. 1979
Provenance
The estate of the artist, Giverny (1) ▪ Michel Monet, Sorel-Moussel (Eure-et-Loir) (1926–1951) (2) ▪
Emil Bührle, Zurich (June 1952 until [d.] 28 November 1956) (3) ▪ Given by the heirs of Emil Bührle
to the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich, no. 73 (1960).
(1) One of 20 canvases with a height of 2 meters, not used for the final installation of the "Water Lilies" paintings
in the Orangerie des Tuileries in Paris, and subsequently brought back to the studio in Giverny.
(2) The artist's son, Wildenstein no. 1979.
(3) Acquired from the above during the Monet exhibition held at the Kunsthaus Zurich from 10 May to 15 June
1952, most probably for CHF 24.000, Archive Kunsthaus Zurich, Sammlungskommission, Minutes of 10 June
1952. Prior to this purchase, Emil Bührle had acquired 3 water lilies paintings from Michel Monet on a trip to
Giverny in the spring of 1951. Bührle offered 2 of these (W.1964/1965 and W.1980) to the Kunsthaus Zurich,
and paid for them with means coming from the funds he had donated to the Kunstgesellschaft for the
construction of the new exhibition wing at the Kunsthaus. Bührle must have seen Monet's water lilies
paintings when they were for the very first time exhibited in the Kunsthalle in Basel in 1949. In 1952, upon
the recommendation of the director of the Zurich Kunsthaus, the Kunstverein Winterthur purchased a water
lilies painting (W.1801), after having selected it in Giverny. Since the Kunstverein was allowed to purchase
their painting at the price set in Basel when it was exhibited there in 1949, it is fair to assume that the same
applied for Emil Bührle who therefore most probably acquired the Foundation's painting for the equivalent of
FF 2 Mio. For a detailed account of the events surrounding the first purchases of Monet's water lilies paintings
in Switzerland see Lukas Gloor, "Claude Monet, Nymphéas blancs et jaunes", in Kunstmuseum Winterthur,
Katalog der Gemälde und Skulpturen, vol. 2, Düsseldorf 2008, no. 11.
Exhibitions
Impressionisten, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Vorläufer und Zeitgenossen, Kunsthalle Basel 1949, no.
212. ▪ Claude Monet 1840–1926, Kunsthaus Zurich 1952, no. 113. ▪ Monet's Garden (Monets
Garten), Kunsthaus Zurich 2004–05, no. 71.
References
Jean-Dominique Rey, Denis Rouart, Monet, Nymphéas ou les miroirs du temps, Paris 1972, p. 167
(ill. upper right). ▪ Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet, Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 4,
Peintures 1899–1926, Lausanne & Paris 1985, no. 1979 (ill.; 2Monet oder der Triumph des
Impressionismus, Cologne 1996, p. 437 (ill.); Monet, Catalogue raisonné; Werkverzeichnis, vol. 4,
Nos. 1596–1983 et les Grandes Décorations, Cologne 1996). ▪ Christian Geelhaar, "'Le spleen de
Giverny'", in Claude Monet: Nymphéas, (exh. cat.) Kunstmuseum Basel 1986, p. 115, n. 203. ▪
Michael Leja, "The Monet Revival and the New York School of Abstraction", in Monet in the 20th
Century, (exh. cat.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1998–99, p. 291,
n. 10. ▪ Pierre Georgel, Claude Monet, Nymphéas, Paris 1999, ill. ▪ Pierre Georgel, Les Nymphéas,
Paris 2006, ill. ▪ Jean-Dominique Rey, Denis Rouart, Monet, Les Nymphéas, L'Intégralité, Paris 2008,
p. 145 (ill. lower left).
Catalogues of the Bührle collection: 1966 & 1971, no. 73; 1973/86, no. 73; 1994/95, p. 40;
2004/05, no. 82. ▪ Exhibitions of the Bührle collection: Zurich 1958, no. 188; Zurich 2010, no. 73.
Catalogues, exhibitions and articles cited in full see http://www.buehrle.ch/pdf/egbcat.pdf.
AStEGB = Archive of the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich
Status as per January 2016
www.buehrle.ch / [email protected]
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