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Claude Monet – Nymphéas (Water Lilies) (executed c1914-17)

A monumental Water Lilies by Monet sold for $65.5 million at Sotheby’s in New York this evening. The most expensive artwork sold so far at auction in 2024 was from the collection of Sydell Miller. Known to many as the “queen of the beauty industry” Sydell Miller’s  extraordinary collection has taken centre stage at Sotheby’s marquee sales week in New York and feature the major artistic movements of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

In both its composition and size the present Nymphéas marks a radical shift in Monet’s approach to a subject which, both at the time and in posterity, has come to be regarded as one of the most celebrated motifs in his canonical oeuvre. Measuring a remarkable 68 by 51 inches the work is a towering example of the monumental canvases which would come to populate his late output. Larger canvases like that of the present work allowed the artist to explore the Nymphéas theme with a freedom of expression that was otherwise restricted by his earlier, smaller scale. The resulting close chromatic range and all-over composition, which heralded a shift from the painterly conventions of its time, prophetically anticipates the origins of the large-scale gestural canvases of the later New York School.

The evening auction of 25 lots and including works by Lalanne, Yves Klein, Picasso, Kandinsky, Henry Moore and Franz Klein, realised a total of $215,953,500