Gathering Water-Lilies
Peter Henry Emerson
- Institution
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
- Accession
- 2005.100.741
- Credit
- Gilman Collection, Purchase, Mrs. Walter Annenberg and The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 2005
- Rights
Public domain: the artist died in 1936. The Metropolitan Museum of Art releases this image under CC0 through its Open Access programme.
- Description
- A black-and-white photograph of a rowing boat among water lilies on still water. One person rows from the stern while the other leans out over the side to lift a lily from the water; tall reeds close in behind them.
- Image
- 1600 × 1085
source file retrieved 2026-10-11 - Catalogue no.
- G-009035
coldlibrary.com/g/009035 - Credit line
- Peter Henry Emerson, Gathering Water-Lilies, 1886. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain (CC0). Via Cold Library: https://coldlibrary.com/g/009035
Emerson argued that photography should look the way the eye sees, softly focused away from the centre, and he made his case on the Norfolk Broads among the people who worked there. This plate comes from his first book, Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads (1886). It is the stillest water on this wall.
