Life story
Oscar-Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 in France. His long life would carry him from the beginnings of a new way of seeing to its full flowering, and he came to be regarded as the founder of Impressionism and a key precursor to modernism.
Throughout his career he sought above all to paint nature as he perceived it. He was the most consistent and prolific practitioner of Impressionism's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions of nature, and he devoted himself especially to plein air, or outdoor, landscape painting.
The very name of the movement grew from his work. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise, which was exhibited in 1874 at the First Impressionist Exhibition. Monet initiated that exhibition with a number of like-minded artists as an alternative to the official Salon.
Claude Monet died in Giverny on 5 December 1926 and was laid to rest in the Giverny churchyard, near the gardens that inspired so much of his later work. His paintings continue to shape how the world sees light, colour and the passing moods of nature.
Životopisné údaje z verejných zdrojov. Portrét: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).
Constellation of Life
Important milestones that shaped their journey.