Claude Monet gallery one

FRENCH PAINTER; a founding member of the Impressionist circle. Monet was born in Paris, but grew up on the Normandy coast, where he developed an early interest in landscape painting. His early mentors were Jongkind and Boudin, and the latter encouraged Claude to paint outdoors rather than in the studio. This was to be one of the key principles of Impressionism.

While a student in Paris, he met Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley, and together they formulated the basic ideas of the movement. One of Monet’s paintings, Impression:Sunrise gave the group its name.

The Impressionists staged their own shows, holding eight exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. Initially, these attracted savage criticism, causing genuine financial hardship to Monet and his friends. His most distinctive innovation was the ‘series’ painting. Here, Monet depicted the same subject again and again, at different times of the day or in different seasons. In these pictures, his real aim was not to portray a physical object — whether a row of poplars or the facade of Rouen cathedral — but to capture the changing light and atmospheric conditions.

Excerpt from Art. The World of Art, from Aboriginal to American Pop, Renaissance Masters to Postmodernism.