Skip to main contentProvenanceThe artist
Desmond Fitzgerald
American Art Galleries, New York, New York, April 21–22, 1927, no. 72
E. M. Travis
Knoedler & Company, New York, New York
John Astor, 1944
Sotheby's New York, New York, December 3, 1992, lot 99
Berry-Hill Galleries Inc., New York, New York (agent), Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1993
Exhibition HistoryPublished References
Willard Metcalf
(American, 1858–1925)
The Lily Pond
1887
Oil on canvas
Image: 12 1/8 × 15 1/16 in. (30.8 × 38.3 cm)
Frame: 20 1/8 × 23 3/16 × 2 7/8 in. (51.1 × 58.9 × 7.3 cm)
Frame: 20 1/8 × 23 3/16 × 2 7/8 in. (51.1 × 58.9 × 7.3 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number1993.5
SignedLower left: W.L. METCALF-87
InterpretationA placid pool of still water in the quiet of a summer's afternoon is the subject of Willard Leroy Metcalf's The Lily Pond. Lily pads, some adorned with yellow spherical buds, fill the foreground, their dull opacity accentuating by contrast the richly reflective surface of the water. The scene is cast in shade by the dense trees on the left, but the far distance is filled with light that draws the eye toward the high horizon. There, a cultivated hillside rises above a gray-roofed white building and a row of pollarded willow trees lining the far bank. The scene is rendered sketchily in thin pigment that in places allows the light-colored ground to appear. The deserted scene glows with the lush greens of summertime as light and shadow, objects and their reflections play across the surface of the painting. The proportions of this small work—nearly as high as it is wide—anticipate Metcalf's penchant for square canvases later in his career.
According to alternate titles Metcalf recorded for The Lily Pond, this work depicts a scene along the river Epte in Giverny, the Normandy village where the artist worked for extended periods in 1887 and 1888, during his years as an art student in Paris. He was one of the first of the many international painters who visited Giverny in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as it became a center for impressionism, an approach to painting contemporary subjects that emphasizes brilliant reflected light by means of rapid, broken brushwork and bright color. Like other artists in Giverny at the time, Metcalf pictured the landscape around the village in several works, including the The River Epte, Giverny (TF 1989.6), that focus on its hills, trees, and waterways rather than buildings, inhabitants, and activities. In The Lily Pond Metcalf demonstrated his emerging interest in impressionism in the loose, spontaneous handling of paint and evocation of bright light. The composition's strong sense of balanced repose and recession into depth, however, reveal his continuing commitment to academic conventions of pictorial illusion. The thin paint applied in layers, poetic atmosphere, and delicate tonalities, especially the cool blue-greens of the lily pads, also recall Metcalf's exposure to the work of French painter Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884) and his American followers, who experimented with painting outdoors in natural light conditions.
According to alternate titles Metcalf recorded for The Lily Pond, this work depicts a scene along the river Epte in Giverny, the Normandy village where the artist worked for extended periods in 1887 and 1888, during his years as an art student in Paris. He was one of the first of the many international painters who visited Giverny in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as it became a center for impressionism, an approach to painting contemporary subjects that emphasizes brilliant reflected light by means of rapid, broken brushwork and bright color. Like other artists in Giverny at the time, Metcalf pictured the landscape around the village in several works, including the The River Epte, Giverny (TF 1989.6), that focus on its hills, trees, and waterways rather than buildings, inhabitants, and activities. In The Lily Pond Metcalf demonstrated his emerging interest in impressionism in the loose, spontaneous handling of paint and evocation of bright light. The composition's strong sense of balanced repose and recession into depth, however, reveal his continuing commitment to academic conventions of pictorial illusion. The thin paint applied in layers, poetic atmosphere, and delicate tonalities, especially the cool blue-greens of the lily pads, also recall Metcalf's exposure to the work of French painter Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884) and his American followers, who experimented with painting outdoors in natural light conditions.
Desmond Fitzgerald
American Art Galleries, New York, New York, April 21–22, 1927, no. 72
E. M. Travis
Knoedler & Company, New York, New York
John Astor, 1944
Sotheby's New York, New York, December 3, 1992, lot 99
Berry-Hill Galleries Inc., New York, New York (agent), Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1993
Exhibition History
Exhibition, St. Botolph Club, Boston, Massachusetts, March 1889, no.2.
Exhibition, Rowland's Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 1889.
Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915 (Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 1993; April 1–October 30, 1994; April 1–October 31, 1995. [exh. cat.]
American Artists and the Paris Experience, 1880–1910, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 22, 1997–March 8, 1998.
Giverny: une impression américaine (Giverny, An American Impression), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 1, 1998.
Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900 (Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]
Giverny au fil des saisons (Giverny in All Seasons), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001.
Les impressionistes américains, de 1880 à 1915, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland (organizer). Venue: Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland, June 7–October 20, 2002.
En Plein Air: American Painters in Giverny, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 8–May 25, 2003.
Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 31, 2005. [exh. brochure]
Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 29, 2006. [exh. brochure]
Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915, Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 1, 2007; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, July 21–October 14, 2007. [exh. cat.]
Impressionist Giverny: The Americans, 1885–1915, Selections from the Terra Foundation for American Art, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Florence Griswold Museum of Art, Old Lyme, Connecticut, May 3–July 27, 2008; Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, New York, August 23, 2008–January 4, 2009.
L’Impressionnisme au fil de la Seine (Impressionism on the Seine), Musée des impressionismes Giverny, Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée des impressionismes Giverny, Giverny, France, April 1–July 18, 2010. [exh. cat.]
Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan with the Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venues: Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Kitakyushu, Japan, October 9–November 28, 2010; The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, December 7, 2010–February 17, 2011; The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan, February 25–April 10, 2011. [exh. cat.]
Gallery Installation, Musée de impressionnismes Giverny, France, July 2012–November 2012; March 2013–November 2013; March 2014–November 2014; March 2015–November 2015.
The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context (L’atelier de la Nature, 1860-1910. Invitation à la Terra Collection). Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny (organizers). Venue: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, France, September 12, 2020–January 3, 2021. [exh. cat. in French]
Terra Collection-in-Residence, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, July 24, 2022–July 31, 2025.
Exhibition, Rowland's Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 1889.
Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915 (Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 1993; April 1–October 30, 1994; April 1–October 31, 1995. [exh. cat.]
American Artists and the Paris Experience, 1880–1910, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 22, 1997–March 8, 1998.
Giverny: une impression américaine (Giverny, An American Impression), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 1, 1998.
Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900 (Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]
Giverny au fil des saisons (Giverny in All Seasons), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001.
Les impressionistes américains, de 1880 à 1915, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland (organizer). Venue: Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland, June 7–October 20, 2002.
En Plein Air: American Painters in Giverny, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 8–May 25, 2003.
Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 31, 2005. [exh. brochure]
Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 29, 2006. [exh. brochure]
Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915, Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 1, 2007; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, July 21–October 14, 2007. [exh. cat.]
Impressionist Giverny: The Americans, 1885–1915, Selections from the Terra Foundation for American Art, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Florence Griswold Museum of Art, Old Lyme, Connecticut, May 3–July 27, 2008; Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, New York, August 23, 2008–January 4, 2009.
L’Impressionnisme au fil de la Seine (Impressionism on the Seine), Musée des impressionismes Giverny, Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée des impressionismes Giverny, Giverny, France, April 1–July 18, 2010. [exh. cat.]
Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan with the Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venues: Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Kitakyushu, Japan, October 9–November 28, 2010; The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, December 7, 2010–February 17, 2011; The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan, February 25–April 10, 2011. [exh. cat.]
Gallery Installation, Musée de impressionnismes Giverny, France, July 2012–November 2012; March 2013–November 2013; March 2014–November 2014; March 2015–November 2015.
The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context (L’atelier de la Nature, 1860-1910. Invitation à la Terra Collection). Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny (organizers). Venue: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, France, September 12, 2020–January 3, 2021. [exh. cat. in French]
Terra Collection-in-Residence, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, July 24, 2022–July 31, 2025.
American Art Galleries, New York, New York. Paintings by the Impressionists: Collection of the Late Desmond Fitzgerald. (April 21–22, 1927): 72. Ill. no. 72 (as The Lily Pond).
De Veer, Elizabeth and Richard J. Boyle. Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1987. Fig. 229, p.196 (color as Afternoon on the River, Giverny, incorrectly designated as in the collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth).
Sotheby's, New York, New York (Sale 6373, December 3, 1992): 99. Text p. 99; ill. p. 99 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. et al. Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915. (exh. cat. Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Text pp. 35, 46, 76, 209 (checklist); cat. p. 80 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. "Impressionist Giverny: American Painters in France" American Art Review 20.3 (June 2008): 100–113. Ill. p.105 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M., Shunsuke Kijima and Sanjiro Minamikawa. Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism. (exh. cat. Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, and The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art). Fukuoka, Japan: The Nishinippon Shimbun, 2010. Text cat. no. 22, pp. 71 (in Japanese), 182 (in English); ill. 71 (color).
Bruce, Tobi and Joan Padgett, eds., Into the Light: The Paintings of William Blair Bruce (1859–1906). (exh. cat., Art Gallery of Hamilton). Ontario: Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2014. fig 3.7 p. 117 (color), text p. 117.
Bourguignon, Katherine and Valerie Reis. The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context. (exh. cat, Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny). Paris, France: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2020. Pl. 54, p. 128 (color).
De Veer, Elizabeth and Richard J. Boyle. Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1987. Fig. 229, p.196 (color as Afternoon on the River, Giverny, incorrectly designated as in the collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth).
Sotheby's, New York, New York (Sale 6373, December 3, 1992): 99. Text p. 99; ill. p. 99 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. et al. Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915. (exh. cat. Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Text pp. 35, 46, 76, 209 (checklist); cat. p. 80 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M. "Impressionist Giverny: American Painters in France" American Art Review 20.3 (June 2008): 100–113. Ill. p.105 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine M., Shunsuke Kijima and Sanjiro Minamikawa. Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism. (exh. cat. Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, and The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art). Fukuoka, Japan: The Nishinippon Shimbun, 2010. Text cat. no. 22, pp. 71 (in Japanese), 182 (in English); ill. 71 (color).
Bruce, Tobi and Joan Padgett, eds., Into the Light: The Paintings of William Blair Bruce (1859–1906). (exh. cat., Art Gallery of Hamilton). Ontario: Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2014. fig 3.7 p. 117 (color), text p. 117.
Bourguignon, Katherine and Valerie Reis. The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context. (exh. cat, Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny). Paris, France: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2020. Pl. 54, p. 128 (color).