Monet, Claude 1840-1926
French Impressionist painter

Born in Paris, he spent his youth in Le Havre, where he met Eug�ne Boudin, who encouraged him to work in the open air. Moving to Paris, he associated with Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley, and exhibited with them at the first Impressionist Exhibition in 1874. One of his works at this exhibition, Impression: soleil levant, gave its name to the movement. Later he worked much at Argenteuil. Along with Pissarro, Monet is recognized as one of the creators of Impressionism, and he was one of its most consistent exponents. He visited England, Holland and Venice, and spent his life expressing his instinctive way of seeing the most subtle nuances of colour, atmosphere and light in landscape. Apart from many sea and river scenes, he also executed several series of paintings of subjects under different aspects of light, such as Haystacks (1890-91), Rouen Cathedral (1892-95) and the almost abstract Waterlilies (at the Orangerie, Paris). The last years of his life were spent as a recluse at Giverny.

Bibliography: William C Seitz, Claude Monet (1960)