MONET, CLAUDE

born November 14, 1840, Paris, France died December 5, 1926, Giverny in full Oscar-Claude Monet French painter who was the initiator, leader, and unswerving advocate of the Impressionist style. In his mature works, Monet developed his method of producing repeated studies of the same motif in series, changing canvases with the light or as his interest shifted. These series were frequently exhibited in groupsfor example, his images of haystacks (1891) and the Rouen Cathedral (1894). At his home in Giverny, Monet created the water-lily pond that served as inspiration for his last series of paintings. His popularity soared in the second half of the 20th century, when his works traveled the world in museum exhibitions that attracted record-breaking crowds and marketed popular commercial items featuring imagery from his art. William C. Seitz The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Additional reading Life and work The most comprehensive analysis of Monet's long and productive career is Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, 4 vol. (1996; originally published in French in 5 vol., 197491), with a biography in English and a catalog in French, English, and German. Among the many other studies of Monet's life and career, the most thorough and accessible are Paul Hayes Tucker, Claude Monet: Life and Art (1995); and Carla Rachman, Monet (1997). Many of Monet's contemporaries wrote about his life and work, most notably his close friends Gustave Geffroy, Claude Monet: sa vie, son oeuvre, 2 vol. (1924, reprinted in 1 vol., 1980); and Georges Clemenceau, Claude Monet: Les Nymphas (1928). Themes and criticism Focused studies of the individual phases of Monet's long career are in Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet at Argenteuil (1982, reissued 1984), and in his exhibition catalog Monet in the '90s: The Series Paintings (1989); and the catalog by Paul Hayes Tucker, George T.M. Shackelford, and Mary Anne Stevens, Monet in the 20th Century (1998). Theoretical perspectives on the artist include John House, Monet: Nature into Art (1986, reprinted 1989); and Steven Z. Levine, Monet, Narcissus, and Self-Reflection: The Modernist Myth of the Self (1994). Monet's practice of working in a single region for a concentrated period of time allows analysis of single phases of his development. Texts that focus upon his endeavours in specific locations include Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Monet in Holland (1986); Robert L. Herbert, Monet on the Normandy Coast: Tourism and Painting, 18671886 (1994); Joachim Pissarro, Monet and the Mediterranean (1997), and Monet's Cathedral: Rouen, 18921894 (1990); Karin Hellandsj (ed.), Monet in Norway (1995); and Grace Seiberling, Monet in London (1988).Monet's garden at Giverny has prompted many publications. Of enduring value is Claire Joyes, Claude Monet: Life at Giverny (1985). The intriguing story of the predominantly American art colony that gathered in Giverny is recorded in William H. Gerdts, Monet's Giverny: An Impressionist Colony (1993). Metropolitan Museum of Art, Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism (1978, reissued 1995), with an essay by Daniel Wildenstein, presents a lively anecdotal overview of the last four decades of the artist's life and work. Pierre Georgel, Claude Monet, Nymphas (1999), focuses on the culminating work of Monet's career, the installation of the Orangerie murals in Paris. William C. Seitz The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica