Claude Monet (Treasures of Art)

CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926) is generally considered to be the central figure in the development of the Impressionist movement. In a career spanning 70 years during which he produced many hundreds of paintings, there can be found a number which are among the most famous in the history of modern European art.Monet rejected the brushwork technique used by the academic traditionalists to create dramatically fresh images of nature in its various forms and moods. His later home in Giverny, on the bank of the Seine near Paris, where he lived for three decades of his life, became the focal point for some of the most celebrated of these works and includes the waterlilies series known as the Nymphéas.A notable feature of his work was the treatment of single subjects in extended series, such as Poplars and Grain Stacks as well as views of the façade of Rouen Cathedral, seen in various stages as the light changed throughout the day. His influence on painting in this century can hardly be over-emphasized.