Christie's Will Offer Monet Water Lily in November

Christie's New York will offer Claude Monet's Nymphéas (1905) at its Impressionist and modern art evening sale Nov. 7. Depicting the familiar lily pond at Giverny, the painting is expected to bring from $30 million to $50 million.

Nymphéas comes from the estate of Ethel Strong Allen, widow of the late stockbroker Herbert Allen Sr., an early specialist in corporate takeovers who died in 1997. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Hackley School, in Tarrytown, N.Y., which three generations of Allens have attended.

Monet moved to Giverny with his family in 1883 and created some of the most recognizable images of his career there. The Allen canvas was on view in his 1909 exhibition at Paris's Galerie Durand-Ruel. The Allens bought it in 1979 from Charles B. Alexander and Harriet Crocker, daughter of railroad magnate Charles Crocker.

The top auction price for a Monet is $80.4 million, set at Christie's London in 2008 by Le Bassin aux nymphéas (1919). The painting was estimated at $35–47 million, about the same estimate as for the Allen Monet.

A rare Kandinsky will be on offer at Christie's the same evening.