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Poppy Fields Painted in 1873, Poppy Fields shows Monet's wife Camille and their son Jean wandering under the hot sun in a field of flowers. Monet became an expert at depicting the atmosphere of a scene so precisely that viewers could feel the weather of the moment and the hour of the day.




Water Lilies, 1916 When he moved to his home in Giverny, France, Monet turned his attention to developing his garden and capturing its beauty. There he painted his famous water lily pieces. Working at the end of his life when he suffered from cataracts, many of the water lily paintings featured a new color palette and bordered on modern abstraction.




Regatta at Argenteuil Located on the bank of the Seine river, Argenteuil was home to Monet and his family for several years of his career. Monet painted Regatta at Argenteuil seated on the deck of his own boat. The brushstrokes are highly visible and the contrasting colors bring the reflections of the water to life.



Claude Monet
The Life of Claude Monet
When you hear the term impressionism, chances are you'll hear Monet's name as well. Born in Paris on November 14, 1840, Monet grew up drawing caricatures for fun and was able to sell his drawings for a good price even at a young age. His father wanted him to join the family grocery business and his mother was a singer. Despite his father's reservations, Monet attended Académie Suisse in Paris where he met artists like Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro. At the time Monet worked, most artists painted in studios, even when they were depicting outdoor scenes. Monet preferred to work outside and study the light. When Monet and his friends were rejected by the Paris salons, they arranged their own exhibition. There, Monet presented the piece that gave impressionism its name: Impression, Sunrise. Throughout the rest of his life, Monet stayed true to the ideas of impressionism, focusing on the various effects of light through color. Monet applied paint straight to the canvas in small strokes and dashes that give the impression of a new color. There are rarely hard edges or solid areas of color in impressionist paintings, which gives them a softer look. Painting subjects as diverse as cathedrals, train stations, and gardens, Monet showed that the techniques of impressionism could be applied to urban, industrial subjects, the passage of time, and the beauty of nature. Despite difficulties with his eyes, Monet remained an artist his entire life. He devoted his last 27 years to working on his famous water lilies series. Displayed at the Musée de l'Orangeries des Tuileries, they are arranged in a ring on the walls of the gallery that transports visitors to Monet's garden.