1840 - 1926
Monet was born in Paris but his family moved to Le Havre when he was five years old. A local artist Eugène Boudin introduced him to plein-air painting—painting direct from observation outdoors, this forever changed Monet’s approach to painting.
He joined the Paris studio of Charles Gleyre at the age of twenty-two. The traditional, state-run Salon rejected his large-scale work and this disappointment led him to join Degas, Manet, Pissarro and Renoir in establishing the Société Anonyme des Artistes. His painting “Impression, Sunrise” gave the Impressionist movement its name. His garden in Giverny was the setting of many paintings, his and of his friends, Manet and Renoir. His series paintings: Haystacks, Poplars and Rouen Cathedrals, show his obsession with light and shadow. In the final phase of his career, he focused on the lily ponds in Giverny. After his death, the French government installed the series of waterlily paintings in a specially commissioned gallery, the Musée de l’Orangeries des Tuileries.