Interior with Waterlilies
- Artist: Roy Lichtenstein
- Date: 1991
- Medium: Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 3209 x 4553 x 65 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the "Interior with Waterlilies" by Roy Lichtenstein. Painted in 1991 with oil and acrylic on canvas, it’s a giant take on a comic‑book panel – the whole bedroom feels like a blown‑up advert. Lichtenstein got the idea from a billboard he saw outside Rome in 1989, and he turned it into a massive interior that invites you to step inside the scene. The bed and furnishings are flat, pastel and stylised, but the real surprise is the little gallery on the wall: copies of his own work and a Monet‑style water‑lily motif that gives the title. He uses bold Benday dots and sharp edges, achieved by stenciling and a projector to enlarge the design. It’s a perfect example of his late‑period pop‑art playfulness, where everyday domestic space meets comic‑strip drama and self‑reference all at once.
See it in person
Interior with Waterlilies is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
