Home/Symbols/Water liliesWater lilies SymbolismEphemeral beauty and moments of perception—punctuating the surface like pauses in a visual phraseCommon ThemesMysticism & ecstasyMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Seasons & cyclesLandscape & placeHuman vs. natureArtworks Featuring This SymbolThe Water Lily PondClaude Monet (1899)Claude Monet’s The Water Lily Pond transforms a designed garden into a theater of <strong>perception and reflection</strong>. The pale, arched <strong>Japanese bridge</strong> hovers over a surface where lilies, reeds, and mirrored willow fronds dissolve boundaries between water and sky, proposing <strong>seeing itself</strong> as the subject <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[3]</sup>.
