1840-1926. French painter, 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 effects of light
on colour 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 onwards
concentrates on the evanescent effects of
light and colour, and from the late 1860s he
painted in the classic Impressionist manner,
juxtaposing brushstrokes of colour 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
colour compositions. Between 1900 and 1909 he
produced a series of water-lily mural panels
for the French state (the Orangerie, Paris).