Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

Claude Monet 1840–1926

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies (1899) by Claude Monet. Its palette is led by light golden sand (#a7a480, 35%) and warm grey (#86805d, 33%), with accents of dark amber brown. Overall the canvas is light, moderately saturated and warm.

Color note

Monet painted outdoors with the new tube paints and synthetic pigments and all but banished black, building shadows from blues and violets. His series of haystacks and of Rouen Cathedral record how the color of one subject changes with the light.

Palette

#a7a480 MG 190 light golden sand 34.7% of canvas
#86805d MG 174 warm grey 32.9% of canvas
#735d3e MG 184 umber 16.0% of canvas
#d0c5b1 MG 171 bone 13.2% of canvas
#56361d MG 168 dark amber brown 3.2% of canvas

Color families

Brown 69%, Yellow 12%, Green 10%, Gray 4%, White 2%

Measurements

Lightness: 0.64
Contrast: 0.37
Vividness: 0.053
Warmth: +0.98
Complexity: 205 cells
Hue range: 0.53
Focus: 0.00

Composition

51% of the visual weight is in the right half, 56% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.84 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 1% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 40% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date: 1899
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 92.7 × 73.7 cm
Genre: landscape painting
Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

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More by Claude Monet

Luncheon on the Grass, 1866
Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867
Regatta at Sainte-Adresse, 1867
Woman in the Garden, 1867
La Grenouillère, 1869
Impression, Sunrise, 1872
Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875
Madame Monet wearing a kimono, 1876
Rouen Cathedral, 1892
Water Lilies, 1919