The famous green bridge in this painting didn't exist until Monet built it himself, on ground that used to just be wet, unusable marsh.
What you're looking at
Monet painted this view of his garden pond in 1900, showing his now-famous Japanese-style wooden footbridge arching over water dense with lily pads, all framed by overhanging greenery. The bridge and the water beneath it are rendered in soft, layered brushwork, color built up gradually rather than laid down in single flat strokes.
A pond and bridge Monet built from nothing
In 1893, Monet began transforming an area of marshy, unused ground behind his house in Giverny into an actual pond, engineering it himself rather than simply painting a body of water that already existed. On the narrow end of that new pond, he built the wooden bridge in the Japanese style that appears again and again throughout his later work, including this painting.
This bridge and pond became one of the most recurring subjects of Monet's entire late career, appearing in dozens of paintings over the following decades as he watched it grow, change with the seasons, and eventually inspire his largest, most ambitious water lily murals. This particular canvas is now held by the Art Institute of Chicago.
One detail to look for
Look at where the bridge's reflection breaks apart in the water below it. Monet paints the solid wooden structure and its rippling, fragmented reflection in almost the same brushwork, letting the two blur into each other.
See it at its real size
Our canvas print is labeled against the true size of the original, 89.8 x 101.0 cm. Shop the canvas print.