Lego My Monet! Classic Toy Celebrates Fine Art
From toy to tribute, LEGO reimagines Monet’s famous water lilies painting in a 3,000-plus-piece set designed for collectors.
Last February, the LEGO Group announced a new collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art that celebrates one of the most famous gardens in art history: A set that replicates Claude Monet’s 1899 painting, Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies. The set, which went on sale in March, consists of 3,179 pieces that assemble into a flat panel with a frame and a hanger on the back.
Rated 18+ and priced at $249.99, this is meant as a collector’s item rather than a child’s toy. Still, the set incorporates the creativity that makes Lego such a beloved toy, using subtle color variations and a variety of pieces to capture the original painting’s Impressionistic use of light, color, and texture. In addition to the usual rectangular bricks, pieces shaped like flowers, butterflies, leaves, and more reflect Monet’s characteristic brush strokes and nature themes.
Lego has released Lego Art sets based on famous artworks since 2020, starting with a replica of Andy Warhol’s silkscreen of Marilyn Monroe. Other art sets include Hokusai’s The Great Wave, Robert Indiana’s Love sculpture, and possibly the most famous artwork in the world, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Although this is the first commercial Lego set based on a Monet painting, it is not the first time his work has been reinterpreted in Lego. Contemporary artist Ai Weiwei has re-created famous artworks as large-scale panels composed of Lego bricks, including versions of Monet’s Water Lilies paintings in 2022 and 2023.
You may also like:
