You know the person. They have been to Giverny, or they keep saying they will go, and there is a water lily print in their hallway that has survived three moves. Buying for them should be easy, and it is, right up until you see how much Monet merchandise exists.
Monet painted his pond around 250 times, so a lot of museums own a water lily picture and a lot of shops sell one. The useful thing about a museum shop is that the scarf or the coaster starts from one particular canvas, usually one hanging in that building, with the title and the year on the label.
We picked 15 from 4 museum shops, out of the 83 Monet items on Gift Shop Atlas. They are sorted by what you came looking for: something to wear, something for the house, books, and paper.
The splurge on this list. A pure silk scarf, 32 by 40 inches, printed with a Water Lilies canvas from around 1908. The shop notes that the painting features in Collecting Impressionism at LACMA. Care is simple for silk: hand wash cold, hang dry.
A sleep mask made with the sleepwear brand Lunya, printed with Nympheas, the museum's own water lily painting from around 1897. Washable mulberry silk outside, polyester filling, a wide elastic band, and a box. It comes in two sizes, so check which head you are buying for.
Water Lilies of 1906, from the Art Institute of Chicago's collection, on socks. Mostly cotton with some nylon and spandex, in one size that the shop gives as women's 7 to 11 and men's 6 to 10. A small present that does not need explaining.
A LOQI shopping bag printed with the same Nympheas as the sleep mask. Water-resistant recycled polyester, about 16 by 19 inches, and it folds into its own 4.5-inch zip pouch. Light to post, and the kind of gift that gets used weekly.
The pond is only part of the story. Monet also painted the wheat stacks in the fields near his house, and the Houses of Parliament across the Thames, and both are here.
Nympheas, painted around 1897 to 1898 and part of the Los Angeles museum's permanent collection, as a poster of 21.5 by 28.9 inches. It is one of his earliest water lily pictures. That size is not a standard American frame, so budget for one.
For the Monet person who has enough lilies: the Houses of Parliament dissolving into hazy London light, from the 1903 canvas in the Brooklyn Museum. Printed on silk-finish paper in two sizes, 18 by 24 or 24 by 36 inches. It is made to order and cannot be returned.
Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn), 1890 to 1891, from the Art Institute of Chicago. The shop calls it a notecard, but treat it as a small print: the image is about 6.5 inches wide in a mat that measures 8 by 10 overall, a standard frame size.
Four ceramic coasters, about 4 inches square, showing two Chicago paintings: Water Lilies of 1906 and Water Lily Pond of 1900, the one with the footbridge. A sensible choice for someone whose walls are already full.
A decorative plate in Limoges porcelain, made in France by Ligne Blanche, 8.3 inches across. It shows the wooden footbridge over the pond at Giverny, the subject Monet started on in 1899. Decorative is the shop's word, so think shelf or wall, not dinner.
The book to give someone who wants to look more than read. A 172-page Prestel hardcover by Anne Sefrioui with sixty reproductions, six fold-out spreads, colored page edges and a printed canvas binding. It runs from the early forest scenes to the late water lilies.
Monet went to Venice in 1908 and painted it as if it were made of light and not stone. This Rizzoli hardcover accompanies the Brooklyn Museum's exhibition of those pictures, written by its curator Lisa Small with Melissa Buron, with maps of the views he chose.
A picture book for ages 4 to 8 about Monet's working mornings on the Seine, when he moved from canvas to canvas as the light changed. Hardcover, 40 pages, 8.5 by 11 inches. A good way to start a small Monet person early.
Thirty-one postcards from the Art Institute of Chicago's own Monet holdings: the Normandy cliffs, the Seine, London's bridges, and pictures from the Stacks of Wheat and Water Lilies series. Published by the museum. Enough to send one a day for a month, or to keep them all.
Sixteen blank notecards from Pomegranate, four each of four pond paintings dated between 1897 and 1907, with soft white envelopes. The cards are 4.25 by 5.5 inches on heavy stock, and the hinged box they come in is worth keeping afterwards.
A 12 by 12 inch wall calendar for 2027 with twelve Monet paintings, one a month. MoMA's page does not list which twelve, so buy it for the year of Monet and not for a particular picture. Easy to post and hard to get wrong.
We read the public catalogs of the museum shops. Nobody paid to be on this list, and no brand sent us samples: we have not handled these items ourselves. Sizes and materials come from each shop's own product page, which is also where you buy.
Prices can change and items sell out. When a pick is no longer listed by its shop, it drops off this page.
Want to see everything? Browse all 83 Monet items from museum shops.