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Claude Monet

✨ 1840–1926, Impressionist painting

Claude Monet (1840–1926) was a French painter and one of the leading figures of Impressionism, a movement that transformed the way artists represented light and everyday life. Rather than focusing on precise outlines or historical scenes, Monet preferred to paint landscapes, gardens, rivers and coastlines as he observed them in changing weather and at different times of day.

He often worked outdoors, a practice known as painting "en plein air," to capture the effects of natural light before they changed. His painting Impression, Sunrise, exhibited in 1874, gave the Impressionist movement its name. Instead of blending colors smoothly, Monet placed visible brushstrokes side by side so the eye could combine them from a distance.

Throughout his career, Monet returned repeatedly to the same subjects, including haystacks, poplar trees, Rouen Cathedral and the water lily ponds in his garden at Giverny. By painting these scenes under different lighting and seasonal conditions, he explored how color and atmosphere shape what we see.

His later Water Lilies series became increasingly focused on reflections, shifting light and the surface of the water, influencing many twentieth-century artists. Although his eyesight was affected by cataracts in later life, he continued painting and even adapted his methods. Today, Monet's work remains an important reference for understanding the development of modern art and the study of light in painting.

💡 Did you know?

Do you know that the name 'Impressionism' comes from a mockery? Monet painted a sunrise and called it 'Impression, Sunrise'. A critic laughed saying it was just an 'impression' and not a real painting. Monet liked the word so much that he decided to use it to name his entire painting style!

Monet was a passionate gardener. He spent years transforming his Giverny garden into a true paradise with flowers of all colors and a pond full of water lilies. He loved his garden so much that he painted it over 250 times! He used to say that his garden was his most beautiful masterpiece.

To catch the light well, Monet could paint the same place at different hours of the day. He painted a cathedral more than 30 times: once it was pink in the morning, then white at noon, and finally gold with the sunset. He wanted to prove that an object's color changes all the time with the sun!