Are Monet's Water Lilies public domain? Selected works and files

Short answer

Yes—the Art Institute of Chicago’s 1906 Water Lilies, accession 1933.1157, has a supported public-domain record in the United States, United Kingdom and European Union.

The US and exact-file findings cover AIC 1933.1157 only; the later Met canvases need their own US publication evidence and image-file checks.

Artwork copyright verdict

Water Lilies: checked, with file-level limits

Last reviewed2 October 2026

A guide to one Water Lilies canvas, AIC 1933.1157, with later works included for comparison rather than a shared US copyright or file verdict.

01

Artwork copyright

The checked work is the compact 1906 AIC canvas, Wildenstein 1683. Later paintings with the same title are included for comparison; their US status is not assessed here.

02

Physical object

The Art Institute of Chicago owns accession 1933.1157. The Met and other institutions own later works with the same English title, each with its own object and file record.

Open object record ↗

03

Exact image file

AIC’s API marks 1933.1157 public domain, and the selected Commons record releases the exact reproduction under CC0/PDM. The Met’s 1919 object 438008 currently supplies no open primary image in its API, so it is not silently substituted.

Work-level matrix

Jurisdiction checks

Not a worldwide claim

United Statessupported public-domain record

For AIC 1933.1157 only: the museum’s publication history records an illustrated reproduction in Gustave Geffroy’s “Claude Monet,” L’art et les artistes, November 1920, p. 73. The exact Commons record also marks this canvas public domain in the US and CC0/PDM at file level. The later Met canvases’ US status is not assessed here.

United Kingdompublic-domain term

The standard literary, dramatic, musical and artistic-work term in CDPA 1988 §12 is life plus 70 years. Monet died in 1926; on that standard calculation this work was public domain from 1 January 1997. Moral rights and non-copyright restrictions are separate.

European Unionpublic-domain term

Directive 2006/116/EC applies a standard life-plus-70 term, calculated from 1 January after the relevant event. Monet died in 1926; on that standard calculation this work was public domain from 1 January 1997. National moral-rights rules remain separate.

Source file record

One exact file, not blanket permission

Open source record ↗

Upstream

Wikimedia Commons file sourced from Art Institute of Chicago object 16568 / accession 1933.1157

Original SHA-1

50c5d4712ba933b640f72bfe073625be4884aa99

Fetched asset SHA-256

d7619994a6c6f66f64884bcee900eb5181cee83d9fbcbd42d5c971c79c1cbb19

GeMarkt derivative

/blog/art-history/artwork-rights-monet-water-lilies.webp

Derivative SHA-256

336bec12a619cfdc3be728a60f4e99892c92eff6d616f1cdb9a75c6c02ffd959

Dimensions / bytes

1800 × 1733 pixels · 1,052,474 bytes

Rights statement

Art Institute of Chicago Public Domain/CC0; Commons PDM and CC0

Transformation

Commons 1,920-pixel preview resized to 1,800 pixels wide and converted to WebP; no crop or colour edit.

Use guidance: Use this record only for AIC 1933.1157. A later Water Lilies canvas, a Met object page without an open image, or a Monet garden photograph needs a separate file-level decision.

Practical use

• Reuse the exact AIC 1933.1157 file under its CC0/PDM record, including commercially.
• Identify Water Lilies by institution, year and accession number rather than title alone.
• Check US publication evidence and the exact file for every later canvas; the Met comparison works remain unassessed here and do not inherit this verdict.

Evidence opened in this review

1. US Copyright Office: 17 U.S.C. §303 (law)
2. US Copyright Office: publication regulation (law)
3. UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 §12 (law)
4. UK IPO notice on digital images and contract terms (terms)
5. EU Directive 2006/116/EC (law)
6. EU DSM Directive Article 14 (law)
7. Art Institute of Chicago object 16568 / 1933.1157 (object)
8. AIC structured record: illustrated 1920 publication and public-domain flag for 1933.1157 (publication)
9. AIC Monet catalogue entry for the 1906 painting (publication)
10. Exact Commons file for AIC 1933.1157 (file)
11. Met 1919 Water Lilies object 438008, not used as this file (object)

General information, not legal advice. Re-check the exact source record, local law and any contract that applies where you use the file.

Water Lilies is a series, not one painting

Monet returned to the Giverny pond for decades, changing scale, viewpoint, format and the balance between reflected sky and floating plants. Museums use titles such as Water Lilies, Water Lily Pond and The Water-Lily Pond for different canvases. An English title without institution, year and accession number is not enough to identify a work or file.

The US copyright finding and exact-file record here concern one painting: the Art Institute of Chicago’s 1906 near-square canvas, accession 1933.1157, also catalogued as Wildenstein 1683. Two later Met paintings are included for comparison, but their US status and exact files are not cleared by this guide.

Bounded selection matrix

Selected work	Object record	US and exact-file scope in this guide
Water Lilies, 1906	Art Institute of Chicago 1933.1157	GO: work-specific US evidence and exact AIC-derived Commons PDM/CC0 file
Water Lilies, 1916–1919	The Met 1983.532 (object 437137)	HOLD: US status not assessed; no open primary image returned by the Met API record checked in this review
Water Lilies, 1919	The Met 1998.325.2 (object 438008)	HOLD: US status not assessed; no exact open file selected here

The HOLD rows have two separate gaps: this guide has not established their US publication history or selected reusable image files. Monet’s standard UK/EU term does not fill either gap.

Why the US record is work-specific

Monet died in 1926, so the standard life-plus-70 term ended on 31 December 1996 in the UK and EU. In the United States, however, a very late canvas can require its own publication facts. The creation date is not automatically the publication date.

For AIC 1933.1157, the museum’s publication history records an illustrated reproduction in Gustave Geffroy’s “Claude Monet,” L’art et les artistes, November 1920, p. 73. AIC’s structured record marks the item public domain, and the exact Commons file adds a US public-domain statement plus CC0/PDM at file level. The two later Met objects stay in the table without borrowing that evidence: their US status remains unassessed here.

Exact file: AIC 1933.1157 only

The recorded Commons file is sourced from Art Institute of Chicago object 16568. The generator locks the original SHA-1, downloads a 1,920-pixel preview, and makes a 1,800-pixel WebP without crop or colour edit. AIC’s API and the Commons page are both retained so the object status and file status can be checked independently.

This is not the same work as the bridge painting used by GeMarkt’s Water Lily Pond product. The product link above is labelled as a separate commercial route rather than presented as a purchase option for AIC 1933.1157.

A close look at the 1906 canvas

The painting removes bank and horizon. Pale blossoms and flattened pads give a few stable points, but most of the surface slips between water, plant and reflected light. Short vertical touches suggest reeds or mirrored growth; soft horizontal strokes hold the pond together.

The near-square format slows any left-to-right landscape reading. No bridge or shoreline explains where the viewer stands. That ambiguity belongs to this 1906 canvas and should not be used as a generic description of every Water Lilies painting.