Claude Monet Claude Monet

Claude Monet

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One of the most significant painters of the modern era, French artist Claude Monet was an originator of the Impressionist style who worked at the forefront of this radical group artists.

From the mid-1860s, Monet had begun to explore the effects of light, painting impressions of what passes briefly before the...
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'For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but its surroundings bring it to life - the air and the light, which vary continually.'

Claude Monet

From the mid-1860s, Monet had begun to explore the effects of light, painting impressions of what passes briefly before the eye. This new style of painting, influenced greatly by the development of photography and the ever-modernising cityscape of Paris, would alter the course of Western art history forever. From the late 1870s onwards, Monet created his celebrated 'series' of paintings, examining the same scene under different lighting and weather conditions, often recording them spontaneously in vivid colour.

‘Other painters paint a bridge, a house, a boat … I want to paint the air that surrounds the bridge, the house, the boat – the beauty of the light in which they exist.’
Claude Monet
‘For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but its surroundings bring it to life – the air and the light, which vary continually.’
Claude Monet

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