Water Lilies with Green Pads

John La Farge’s lyrical depictions of water lilies are a signature motif within the artist’s impressive career, which included paintings and watercolors as well as celebrated designs for stained glass windows. According to James L. Yarnall, the present work belongs to a group of watercolors that "convey the best qualities of La Farge as a watercolorist. With their sinuous liquid patches, close-up perspectives, and seemingly unstudied painterly effects, they betray a mastery of the medium that ranks La Farge among the leading practitioners of watercolor in America at the time." (Nature Vivante: The Still Lifes of John La Farge, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1995, p. 50)