In 1893, Claude Monet purchased a new plot of land adjacent to his home in Giverny, Normandy, for the sole purpose of creating a water garden. By enlarging his existing pond and filling it with exotic new water lilies, the artist went about building an environment he described as, ‘both for the pleasure of the eye and for the purpose of having subjects to paint’. Within the flourishing oasis, he built a humpback footbridge, inspired by the Japanese prints imported into France in the 1867 Paris International Exposition. The artist went on to paint over 250 canvases of his newly beloved subject throughout his later career, crowned by his grandes decorations, the vast circular installation works now hanging in the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris.

In Les Nymphéas Roy Lichtenstein pays homage to Monet’s Water-Lilies. Using his signature Ben-day dots, strident colors, and graphic lines, the artist cleverly references the beacon of art history. Adopting the Impressionist device of cropping, Lichtenstein focuses on floating buds as they bloom above the waters surface. Juxtaposing dots with diagonal lines, interrupted by swathes of flat black and white color, the artist achieves the impression of reflection and rippling to the water on his two-dimensional plane.

“I’d see something like a way of doing a Monet through just dots that would look like a machine-made impressionist painting.”

Claude Monet, Waterlilies, Morning, 1914-18, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris. Image: Bridgeman Images

Using Monet as source, Lichtenstein suggests that the artwork of the 19th century master is as recognizable as any comic book character. Turning to the same subject at the same time in his life, Lichtenstein’s water lily series represents the culmination of the artists creative development, with the introduction of a wider tonal range into his last works.

1. Les Nympheas (Corlett 280)

2. Water Lily (Corlett 281)

Les Nympheas (C. 280)

Les Nymphéas

Medium: Linoleum cut, woodcut, lithograph, and screenprint on 300-gram Arches Cover paper
Year: 1993
Image: 26 1/4 x 35 7/8 inches (66.7 x 91 cm)
Sheet: 31 x 40 3/8 inches (78.8 x 102.4 cm)
Edition: 100
Artist’s Proofs: 25 AP
Hors Commerce: 10 HC
Printer’s Proofs: 5 PP
Publisher: The Artist and Editions de la Tempête, Paris
Printer: Trestle Editions, New York
For the benefit of Médecins du Monde
Literature: Corlett 280

Roy Lichtenstein Catalogue Raisonne: RLCR 4220

Les Nymphéas, 1993 (RLCR 4220) | Catalogue entry | Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné

Signed, dated and numbered in pencil

Auction Results

Pop Impressions: Prints from the Collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein
Sotheby’s New-York: 23 October 2025
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 139,700
NEW AUCTION RECORD FOR LES NYMPHEAS

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923 – 1997)
Les Nymphéas (Corlett 280; RLCR 4220), 1993
Linoleum cut, woodcut, lithograph and screenprint in colors on Arches Cover paper
Signed in pencil, dated and inscribed AP 3/25
This impression is one of 25 artist’s proofs aside from the numbered edition of 100
Co-published by the artist and Éditions de la Tempête for the benefit of Médecins du Monde

de Vuyst: 19 October 2024
Estimated: EUR 10,000 – 15,000
EUR 27,500 / USD 29,890

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923 – 1997)
Les Nymphéas, 1993
Linoleum cut, woodcut, lithograph and screenprint
Signed in pencil, dated and numbered 31/100
CONDITION NOTE: VISIBLE SCRATCHES

Christie’s London: 27 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 50,400 / USD 61,215

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
Les Nymphéas, 1993
Linocut, woodcut, lithograph and screenprint on wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 53/100

Phillips London: 15 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 52,920 / USD 64,255

ROY LICHTENSTEIN
Les Nymphéas (The Water Lilies) (C. 280), 1993
Linocut, woodcut, lithograph and screen-print in colors, on Arches Cover paper
Signed, dated and numbered 19/100 in pencil

Christie’s Paris: 25 November 2021
Estimated: EUR 25,000 – 35,000
EUR 60,000 / USD 67,340

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
Les Nymphéas, 1993
Linocut, woodcut, lithograph and screen-print on paper
Signed, numbered and dated ’15/100 Roy Lichtenstein ’93’ (lower right)
This work is number fifteen from an edition of one-hundred plus twenty-five artist’s proofs

Koller Zurich: 1 July 2021
Estimated: CHF 35,000 – 40,000
CHF 87,500 / USD 94,500

Water Lily (C. 281)

LA Modern: 3 September 2025
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 34,320

Swann Galleries: 6 June 2024
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 23,750

Phillips New-York: 26 October 2023
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 33,020

Bonhams LA: 3 October 2023
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 44,800
AUCTION RECORD FOR WATER LILY

Bonhams New-York: 9 May 2023
Estimated: USD 35,000 – 40,000
USD 44,475

ROY LICHTENSTEIN
Water Lily (Corlett 281), 1993
Screen-print in colors on Lana Royale paper
Signed in pencil, dated and numbered 29/130

Doyle New-York: 26 October 2022
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 31,250

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
WATER LILY (CORLETT 281), 1993
Color screenprint on Lana Royale paper
Signed, dated and numbered 29/130 in pencil

Rago: 17 September 2021
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 40,000

ROY LICHTENSTEIN
Water Lily, 1993
Screen-print in colors on Lana Royale
Signed, dated and numbered to lower edge ‘SP 10/20 Roy Lichtenstein 93’
Special Proof 10 of 20 apart from the edition of 130

Sotheby’s New-York: 27 May 2021
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 37,800

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923 – 1997)
Water Lily (Corlett 281), 1993
Screen-print in colors
Signed in pencil, dated, inscribed ‘To Tom – Roy’ and numbered 121/130

Abell: 23 May 2021
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 20,000
USD 34,000

ROY LICHTENSTEIN
WATER LILY, 1993
Five color screenprint
Signed and numbered 35/130