Claude Monet's water-lily paintings represent the culminating achievement of his career. His garden at Givernyoillustrated in this book in a number of paintings and studies, as well as in archival photographsoprovided his inspiration. One of Monet's most impressive water-lily triptychs, Agapanthus, executed between about 1915 and 1926, is the focus of this book, which explores the fascinating and little-known history behind its creation. Drawing on new technical analysis, the book examines the relationship between Agapanthus and related studies, as well as Monet's incessant reworking of the triptych. It provides new information on Monet's original plans for the work's display in Paris and explores the posthumous history of the triptych, including its critical reception in the United States and its subsequent splitting up into three separate compositions. The book accompanies an exhibition that reunites the triptych panels for the first time in more than thirty years. Simon Kelly is curator of modern and contemporary art at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Mar y Schafer is associate painting conservator at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Johanna Bernstein is a materials scientist at the Institute for Advance Materials, Devices, and Nanotechnology at Rutgers.