When Monet was eighteen years old he met another "pleine-air" painter, Boudin, who encouraged him to paint nature out in the fresh air. Monet was fascinated by this and it was a revelation to him to try to capture the changing effects of light, colour and atmosphere.
He was joined by other artists with similar aims, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley and Cézanne. The official Paris Salon rejected their pictures and so in 1874 these artists exhibited their works on their own. They were given the derisory title "The Impressionists" after a painting by Monet called "Sunrise. An Impression".
The constantly changing effect of light in nature caused Monet to paint the same subject at various times of day, and he thus produced his series of the Haystacks, Poplars by the River, Rouen Cathedral, Westminster Bridge and so on.
In 1883 he purchased a country property at Giver
ny and lovingly created a beautiful garden with a pond and waterlilies, and a Japanese bridge. He was, by now, famous and increasingly stayed at home painting the effects of the changing light over his waterlilies, pond and willow trees.His final years were spent painting very large canvasses of the same subject – water, flowers, trees and light. His brush strokes became much freer, expressionate and almost abstract. These water lily paintings are now mostly owned by the French Nation.
Peter Clay, former Art Master at Clifton College, Bristol
