Monsieur Latour-Marliac and Monsieur Monet

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Nymhaea 1916 Claude Monet

We take for granted the great variety of colors of water lilies, including those in Monet’s most famous paintings, Les Nymphéas, displayed at the Orangerie Museum in Paris, but they are a relatively recent development. It wasn’t until 1889 at the World’s Fair in Paris that the first colorful water lilies were seen by the public. Before that, the only hardy water lily in Europe was white, but because of the relentless work of Monsieur Latour-Marliac, fair-goers were treated to yellow, pink and deep red water lily varieties for the very first time.

This was a breathtaking achievement in horticulture. Latour-Marliac had worked for decades to hybridize the new colors and they were a sensation, winning a first prize at the World’s Fair. Claude Monet attended that World’s Fair, saw the water lilies and saw his future. He returned to Giverny, purchased the property he had been renting and began to build his water garden or “j…