Image: Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki
A water lily in the courtyard of Japan’s Ohara Museum of Art has produced an unusually shaped bloom that appears to form a heart. The museum shared the update on August 29, describing the flower as a rare occurrence and inviting visitors to look for it during their visit.
The plant was propagated from water lilies taken from the garden of Claude Monet. The Ohara Museum of Art presented the bloom as a living connection to the French artist, whose paintings of water lilies are also part of the museum’s holdings.
According to the museum’s notice, flowers with this distinctive form appear only very occasionally. Its description stops short of identifying the cause of the shape, noting simply that such a special water lily sometimes blooms in the courtyard.
Visitors to the museum in Kurashiki, Japan, are encouraged to view the flower alongside Monet’s work ‘Water Lilies.’ The update does not announce a separate exhibition, event or fixed viewing period, and the museum has not provided further details about how long the bloom will remain visible.
The courtyard plant and the painting are therefore presented together as part of the museum visit: one a rare, temporary feature of the museum grounds, the other a work by Monet held in the collection. The museum’s notice gives no additional information about the specific painting’s date or materials.
