(1840-1926) French painter. He was a pioneer of Impressionism and a lifelong exponent of its ideals; his painting Impression, Sunrise 1872 gave the movement its name. In the 1870s he began painting the same subjects at different times of day to explore the ever-changing effects of light on color and form; the Haystacks and Rouen Cathedral series followed in the 1890s, and from 1899 he painted a series of Water Lilies in the garden of his house at Giverny, Normandy (now a museum).
Monet was born in Paris. In Le Havre in the 1850s he was encouraged to paint by Boudin, and met Jongkind, whose light and airy seascapes made a lasting impact. From 1862 in Paris he shared a studio with Renoir, Sisley, and others, and they showed their work together at the First Impressionist Exhibition 1874. Monet's work from the 1860s onward concentrates on the fleeting effects of light and color, and from the late 1860s he painted in the classic Impressionist manner, juxtaposing brushstrokes of color to create an effect of dappled, glowing light. His first series showed the Gare St Lazare in Paris with its puffing steam engines. Views of the water garden in Giverny gradually developed into large, increasingly abstract color compositions. Between 1900 and 1909 he produced a series of water-lily mural panels for the French state (the Orangerie, Paris). + prikaži više