Les Nymphéas
Les Nymphéas
Signed Mixed Media
Roy Lichtenstein
£35,000-£60,000
$70,000-$120,000 Value Indicator
$60,000-$110,000 Value Indicator
¥330,000-¥560,000 Value Indicator
€40,000-€70,000 Value Indicator
$360,000-$620,000 Value Indicator
¥7,040,000-¥12,070,000 Value Indicator
$45,000-$80,000 Value Indicator
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67 x 91cm, Edition of 100, Mixed Media
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Meaning & Analysis
Roy Lichtenstein’s Les Nymphéas of 1993 was created to benefit the campaign of Los Angeles city councilman, and the president of The Warhol Foundation, Joel Wachs. The work is an autonomous edition, executed one year after the artist’s extraordinary Water Lilies. Although independent from the sequence, Les Nymphéas also pays homage to impressionist Claude Monet’s paintings of the early 1900s.
Les Nymphéas is a brilliant mixed media print that integrates machine-made patterns with painterly gestures. Capturing water lilies resting on water, the artwork portrays flower petals and leaves rendered in bold primary and secondary colours. These botanical elements have been accentuated through thick black contouring.
Lichtenstein flattens his illustration against the picture plane by presenting a cropped and enlarged perspective. The water’s surface is composed entirely out of vivid blue stripes and dense streaks of dots. The patterns evoke a sense of underlying tension between the painter’s expert hand and the perfected means of mechanical reproduction.
Lichtenstein made numerous paintings and prints based on the work of Monet, see his Cathedrals and Haystacks for instance. However, Les Nymphéas also integrates Lichtenstein’s preoccupation with reflections and perception. The artist explored these optical themes continuously throughout his career, most notably in his Mirrors and Reflections series.