CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)

As the father of French Impressionism, Claude Monet spent his career studying the effect of shifting light on colors.  Impressionism, which got its name from his early work entitled Impression, Sunrise, focused on en plein air painting and the expression of one’s perception of nature.

Discouraged with the type of art taught in art classes at the time, Monet would instead look out a window and paint what he saw. He enjoyed painting the same scenes over and over again to capture the light at different times of day and during different seasons. The results of such studies include his well-known series featuring the water lilies on the pond at his property in Giverny, France.