Frank Benson was one of the most successful American Impressionist painters working in the early 20th century. Lily Pond would seem to pay homage to Claude Monet’s great water lily paintings, which by 1923 were well-known in America. While Monet’s water lilies were artificially created for his elaborate gardens and his gardeners kept the water lilies trimmed to the artist’s specifications, Benson’s water lilies on the other hand come from an entirely natural pond at his farm located on a remote island in Maine. His wife planted the lilies, but they appear to have the casual disorder of a wild area.