The Magpie
Claude Monet · 1868
Claude Monet
France · 1840–1926
The painter who gave Impressionism its name, and who kept painting light until the end of his life at Giverny.
- 250+
- Water Lilies paintings
- 25
- Grainstack compositions
- 30+
- Paintings in the Rouen Cathedral series
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Play CollectionFrom Le Havre to Giverny
Claude Monet was the leading French Impressionist landscape painter. He spent his childhood in Le Havre, on the Normandy coast, and knew that shoreline well enough to paint it from his early twenties.
He moved to London during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 to 1871, and on his return to France lived at Argenteuil, on the Seine outside Paris, from 1871 to 1878. In 1883 he acquired a property at Giverny, north-west of Paris, and stayed there for the rest of his life.
The name on the movement
Monet exhibited in most of the Impressionist exhibitions, beginning in 1874, and the title of one of his paintings led to the naming of the movement. The painting was Impression, Sunrise; the title was first used against the group, and then kept by it.
After 1883 his work turned to series: a single subject in changing light, poplars, haystacks, the front of Rouen Cathedral, and his own garden at Giverny.
How he worked
Monet painted in the open air, in front of his subject, working quickly to catch the momentary and transient effects of sunlight before they moved on. The brushwork was rapid and broken into separate dabs, because that is what light looks like when you commit to it.
Snow interested him as much as summer: snow scenes were a particular favourite among the Impressionists, and Monet painted several canvases exploring the way sunlight plays on snow, reflecting tones of red, pink, purple and blue at different times of day.
Known works
Impression, Sunrise
Claude Monet · 1872
An orange sun sits in a grey-blue haze over a harbour, small boats dark against the water; the title of this one painting named the whole movement.
Water Lilies
Claude Monet · 1922
Toledo Museum of Art
The Toledo Museum of Art canvas dated 1922: the surface of the pond and the surface of the painting become the same thing; sky grows between the pads.
Rouen Cathedral Series
Claude Monet · 1892
A series of canvases of one church front, painted again and again until the stone itself seems to change colour with the hour.
Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son
Claude Monet · 1875
A woman and a child on a hillside against a running sky, grass painted in single upward strokes.
Garden at Sainte-Adresse
Claude Monet · 1867
Flowers in terraces, two flags, a flat blue sea: a garden by the water holding very still.
The Poppy Field near Argenteuil
Claude Monet · 1873
Musée d'Orsay
Two figures on a slope of red flowers, the hill carrying them and the sky in bands.
Women in the Garden
Claude Monet · 1866
Musée d'Orsay
Figures in summer dresses stand among the flowers of a rented garden, a canvas so large he painted its upper half with it lowered into a trench, to keep one point of view.
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe
Claude Monet · 1865
Musée d'Orsay
His answer to Manet's scandal of 1863: modern figures seated in the woods, left unfinished, surviving today in two large fragments at the Musée d'Orsay.
Haystacks
Claude Monet
The stacks at Giverny painted again and again, the same heap of straw changing colour with the hour of the day.
More to discover
Camille
Claude Monet · 1866
A green dress fills the picture, the painter's future wife turning in the light of a salon.
La Grenouillère
Claude Monet · 1869
Baths, boats and a floating café on the Seine, painted in quick dashes beside Renoir in the summer of 1869.
Woman with a Parasol, facing left
Claude Monet · 1886
Musée d'Orsay
Another hillside, another running sky, the figure turned away into the wind.
A Cart on the Snowy Road at Honfleur
Claude Monet · 1865
Musée d'Orsay
A horse and cart climb a snowbound lane between bare trees, the cold built from warm greys.
The Railway Bridge at Argenteuil
Claude Monet · 1874
Musée d'Orsay
An iron bridge crosses the Seine, steam and sails sharing the water under it.
Portrait of Père Paul
Claude Monet · 1882
Upper Belvedere
A bearded face in deep red shadow, looking out from under a white cap.
Grainstack at Giverny
Claude Monet · 1889
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
A haystack stands in the field at the end of the day, the light doing all the work.
Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat
Claude Monet · 1874
National Gallery of Ireland
One white sail held on an autumn basin, painted at Argenteuil, where he bought a boat to use as a floating studio.
Camille Monet on her deathbed
Claude Monet · 1879
Musée d'Orsay
Camille died at Vétheuil on 5 September 1879, at thirty-two, and Monet painted her where she lay: a face and shoulders sinking into the pillows, the room emptied of colour.
Belle-Île Rocks
Claude Monet · 1886
Pushkin Museum
Storm sea and dark stone off the Breton coast, painted face to face with the weather.
The Luncheon
Claude Monet · 1873
Musée d'Orsay
A table just cleared, a child in a high chair, sunlight moving across the room in long bands.
Sources
- National Gallery, London, “Claude Monet”
- Tate, “Impressionism”
- Belvedere, Sammlung Online, “The Chef (Le Père Paul)”
- Wikipedia, “Claude Monet”
- Wikipedia, “Rouen Cathedral (Monet series)”
- Wikipedia, “Women in the Garden”
- Wikipedia, “Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Monet, Paris)”
- Wikipedia, “Haystacks (Monet series)”
- Wikipedia, “Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat”
- Wikipedia, "Camille Monet"
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