Water lilies Symbolism
In art, water lilies mark the meeting of surface and depth, where reflection and material form overlap. Their brief, floating presence makes them emblems of fleeting beauty and attentive looking, often used to probe light, time, and perception.
Water lilies in The Water Lily Pond
In Claude Monet’s The Water Lily Pond (1899), water lilies organize a designed garden into a theater of perception. Spread across the reflective water, they interrupt and anchor the mirror of sky and willow fronds, softening the boundary between direct sight and reflection. Set beneath the pale, arched Japanese bridge, the lilies function as visual pauses on the surface, directing attention to seeing itself as the subject.
