Claude Monet water lily painting could fetch up to $50M

Claude Monet's "Nympheas." / Christie's

A Claude Monet painting, dating back to 1905, is set to hit the Christie's auction block Wednesday and is expected to fetch between $30 and $50 million.

Part of the French artist's water lily series, the "Nympheas" painting, which features green lily pads in a pool, will be offered at Christie's evening sale of Impressionist and modern art in New York.

"Across the surface of the canvas, Monet works his blues and greens and pink colors to build up on the one hand a sense flatness and a tilted picture plane but on the other, a sense of warm recession and shadow play along the surface of the water," said Conor Jordan, a deputy chairman at Christie's, in a video clip about the piece.

Jordan said these types of paintings "rarely appear in the marketplace."

The painting is from the estate of Ethel Strong Allen. Her husband, investment banker Herb Allen Sr., and his family acquired the work in 1979. In 1998, they loaned it out for a couple of Monet museum exhibitions. The painting, along with two other Impressionist pieces, were then given to Hackley School in Tarrytown, N.Y. Proceeds from the auction will go directly to K-12 suburban school.