Water lily motifs influenced by Japanese art were popular at the turn of the century. As early as 1888, the open-air painter Julia Beck created a series of pastel-coloured studies in Normandy, France. The forest and river landscapes fascinated her, especially the hazy multi-coloured light in the Risle River. The impressionist Claude Monet painted his first water lily the following year, 1889, and ten years later he started his series from Giverny.