Monet’s vast number of water lily paintings include series using the same composition. This painting is one of a group of fifteen from 1907 that he painted with his canvas oriented vertically. The water lilies on the pond and the reflections of the willow trees around it create a fantasy-like space. In this series, Monet used the same composition while depicting the changes in the color of the sky, starting at high noon, as the sun set, moment by moment. In this painting, the palely vermillion-toned sur face of the water implies that sunset is near.