Paris was the birth-place of Claude Monet, and, when he was 5 years of age, his family relocated to Le Havre - a move that impacted his future work immensely. The countryside and coastline of Normandy was of immense interest to the young Monet, who loved to explore, and he used to also watch the speedily changing weather on the land and the sea. Eugene Boudin, a local artist, introduced Monet to the idea of painting directly outdoors, from observation. This concept was called plein-air. Boudin’s ideas were a life-long influence on Monet’s approach to painting. He met two fellow future impressionists - Frederic Bazille and Pierre-Auguste Renoir - at the Paris studio of an academic painter named Charles Gleyre, which he joined when he was 22 years old. Exhibitions at annual Salons featured his portraits, landscapes and seascapes and these gave Monet limited success. However, his more challenging, large-scale works such as Woman in the Garden, of 1866, were turned down. Monet was bitterly disappointed and this led him to establish the Societe Anonyme des Artistes, along with others including Camille Pissarro, Edouard Manet, Renoir and Edgar Degas. The year 1874 saw the group’s first exhibition, to which Monet submitted Impression Sunrise which was done approximately in 1873.... show more

Paris was the birth-place of Claude Monet, and, when he was 5 years of age, his family relocated to Le Havre - a move that impacted his future work immensely. The countryside and coastline of Normandy was of immense interest to the young Monet, who loved to explore, and he used to also watch the speedily changing weather on the land and the sea. Eugene Boudin, a local artist, introduced Monet to the idea of painting directly outdoors, from observation. This concept was called plein-air. Boudin’s ideas were a life-long influence on Monet’s approach to painting. He met two fellow future impressionists - Frederic Bazille and Pierre-Auguste Renoir - at the Paris studio of an academic painter named Charles Gleyre, which he joined when he was 22 years old. Exhibitions at annual Salons featured his portraits, landscapes and seascapes and these gave Monet limited success. However, his more challenging, large-scale works such as Woman in the Garden, of 1866, were turned down. Monet was bitterly disappointed and this led him to establish the Societe Anonyme des Artistes, along with others including Camille Pissarro, Edouard Manet, Renoir and Edgar Degas. The year 1874 saw the group’s first exhibition, to which Monet submitted Impression Sunrise which was done approximately in 1873. As this appeared unfinished, critics scorned it, and one critic named Louis Leroy described it as “The Exhibition of the Impressionists” in his imprecating review of the show. Instead of being discouraged, the group decided to take their lead from the accusation, and formed an extremely successful new way of working. Also, although the term “impressionist” was derogatory, they embraced it. Monet sought to paint the places and the people that he best knew, and therefore, was never at a loss for a subject to paint. He used both his wives as models and was inspired by the Normandy countryside and coastline, his beloved garden in Giverny, as well as the gardens and buildings of Paris. His garden in Giverny became an attraction for his friends such as Renoir and Manet, who whanted a peaceful break from the flurry of life at Paris. Monet observed his subjects for painting directly from life and he continued the practice of the early 19th century Barbizon school of painters. However, he worked on large-scale canvasses and extensively outdoors - this was quite unlike the just preliminary sketches that were done outdoors by the Barbizon artists. In a natural perspective, Monet was led towards oriental art, especially Japanese woodcuts, away from the traditions of western landscape, in his desire to capture nature as freshly as possible. Monet’s series painting, Haystacks done in 1888-1889, Poplars done in 1892 and Rouen Cathedral done in 1892-1894 portray renderings of a given scene at different times in the day. These show Monet’s captivation with the process of perception and show how this perception changes according to the time of day or according to the season. This reached new heights in his series paintings, which are turning point in the history of painting, because, in it, shadow as well as light appear as real as solid matter. Giverny’s waterlily ponds, which were depicted on mural-like, outsize canvases, were the focus-points of Monet’s latter career. Crisscross strokes of impastoed paint is used to create differentiated texture, and water and plants blend into abstract visions of color. Monet’s last waterlily series was installed by the French government in the Musee de l’Orangeries des Tuileries, a specially accredited gallery, after his death.
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