Impressionism took its name from the title of a painting that Claude
Monet (1840-1926) exhibited in 1874. More than any other artist, Monet
was the creator of the Impressionist vision, which has so forcefully
shaped the way in which he habitually see nature today. For sixty years
he continuously explored ways of translating his experiences into paint,
in pictures that take us from the bustling life of Paris in the 1860s to
the seclusion of his own water-garden, which he painted in his last
years.
John House's introduction to Monet's life and work presents a sequence
of dazzling illustrations that chart the artist's progress as he became
increasingly preoccupied with colour and atmospheric effect, and the
direct studies of nature gave way to paintings of greater richness and
harmony, in which the play of varied colours replaced the conventional
drawing and modelling of forms.