FIVE of Claude Monet’s water lily masterpieces will be shown at Tate Liverpool next summer. Brought together from all over the world, it will be the first time in more than a decade that five Monet paintings in this series have been displayed in the UK.

They will form part of the exhibition Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings, which opens at the Albert Dock gallery next June.

Tate Liverpool curator Jeremy Lewison said: “To have five major examples in an exhibition is incredibly rare.

“The water lily paintings mark the crowning moment of Monet’s career and are among the most recognised of his paintings.”

Claude Monet first painted water lilies, long associated in poetry with mourning, melancholy and death, at his home in Giverny, France, in 1899.

Although seemingly joyous, the pictures were completed during his step-daughter’s long illness which led to her early death.

The main body of his water lily paintings was started in 1914, another time of great loss for Monet.

His wife, Alice, had died in 1911, his son Jean died in February 1914 and his other son Michel was called up to serve at the front.

Lewison adds: “Painted against the backdrop of the First World War, they represent an oasis of calm while all hell was breaking loose around him.

“For Monet these paintings assuaged his sense of personal grief. Mourning and loss are key themes in this exhibition for all three artists.”