Claude Monet

1840-1926

Claude Monet (1840–1926) was the central figure of French Impressionism, a painter who devoted his career to capturing the shifting effects of light and atmosphere in the open air. Raised in Le Havre, he was introduced to outdoor painting by Eugène Boudin, and later studied in Paris alongside Renoir, Sisley, Bazille and Pissarro, forming the circle that would launch Impressionism. His canvas Impression, Sunrise, shown at the independent exhibition of 1874 that he helped organize, gave the movement its name. Monet worked in Normandy, Argenteuil, London and the Netherlands before settling in 1883 at Giverny, where he built the water garden that became his lifelong subject. There he painted his celebrated series — haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, and above all the water lilies that occupied him for two decades. His work is now held in major collections worldwide, including the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Hermitage.