Claude Monet

Impressionism created illusion by capturing the effects of light on form. Of all the Impressionists, Monet carried this concept to its most extreme expression. He painted sixteen views of Waterloo Bridge in London, and twenty-six views of the Rouen Cathedral at different hours of the day in order to capture the effects of changing light. Monet therefore is considered the archetypal Impressionist and it was his painting, Impression: Sunrise (1872) that gave the Impressionists their name. Monet‘s influence on the painting of the 19th Century was tremendous. Interestingly enough, it only has been since the 1950s that Monet has been recognized for his immense importance to modern art. Of particular value to artists of the 20th Century were the steps that led Monet from realism in the 1850s into a profound struggle to represent even the most evanescent effects of nature. At his death at the age of 86, Monet‘s paintings had reached the point of near abstraction. In this book, the full-range and variety of Monet‘s work is explained as well as represented by a key selection of color reproductions.