Description
About me
Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter, a founder of French Impressionist painting and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein air landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.
Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883, Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property and began a vast landscaping project which included lily ponds that would become the subjects of his best-known works. In 1899, he began painting the water lilies, first in vertical views with a Japanese bridge as a central feature and later in the series of large-scale paintings that was to occupy him continuously for the next 20 years of his life.
Work / Education
Monet decided to return to Paris to study, where he was strongly influenced by the paintings of the Barbizon school and studied at the Academie Suisse. After this, Monet decided to join the military, but he was discharged for health reasons. Then he went to study with Charles Gleyre, and through him he met many painters. He also became a close friend to Johann Barthold, that proved to be a great influence to the young artist.
Monet is best known for his water lilies paintings, where the famous Japanese bridge is represented. He is also known for the paintings of his first wife (the Woman in green), his Ice drift series and the paintings of Le Havre.Impressionism, a style that prefers light and form to reality. He also created the Anonymous Society of Artists , Painters , Sculptors and Engravers, with other Impressionists, as a way to showcase their works.
