Painting by Claude Monet/National Gallery of Art Peter C. Baker is a writer based in Evanston, Illinois. Taking particular notice of Impression, Sunrise (1872), a hazy depiction of Le Havre port and stylistic detour, he coined the term "Impressionism". Title: The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil Artist: Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832-1883 Paris) Date: 1874 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 24 x 39 1/4 in. Oscar-Claude Monet, better known as Claude Monet, was born in Paris, France, on November 14, 1840. [77] Claude Roger-Marx noted in a review of Monet's successful 1909 exhibition of the first Water Lilies series that he had "reached the ultimate degree of abstraction and imagination joined to the real". [50] Contemporary criticsand later academicsfelt that with his choice of showcasing Belle le, he had indicated a desire to move away from the modern culture of Impressionist paintings and instead towards primitive nature. His father owned a grocery store. [81] Monet would often work on large canvases due to the deterioration of his eyesight and by 1920 he admitted that he had grown too accustomed to broad painting to return to small canvases. 1926, surrounded by his family. He loved art from an early age and studied at a school of art in Le Havre, which is where his family lived when he was 11 years old. [82], Monet's output decreased as he became withdrawn, although he did produce several panel paintings for the French Government, from 1914 to 1918 to great financial success and he would later create works for the state. [43] He later regretted inspiring the name, as he believed that they were a group "whose majority had nothing impressionist". Getting Started With Picasso: The Image Downloading And Caching Library For Android, The End Of Picasa: Why Google Is Shutting Down The App. UPC: N/A. art music is suitable for living room, dining room, bedroom, home and other places. [69] In 2004, London, the Parliament, Effects of Sun in the Fog (Londres, le Parlement, troue de soleil dans le brouillard; 1904), sold for US$20.1million. Other notable collections can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the National Gallery in London. [115] This purchase represented one of the top 20 highest prices paid for a painting at the time. In 1872 he painted a picture of a harbour using very loose brushstrokes. [24][94], Monet refined his palette in the 1870s, consciously minimising the use of darker tones and favouring pastel colours. [6], Jean suffered an illness for a period of time and died on February 10, 1914. [12], Upon his return to Paris, with the permission of his father, he divided his time between his childhood home and the countryside and enrolled in Charles Gleyre's studio, where he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Frdric Bazille. Claude resisted his father's attempts to draw him into the family grocery business and insisted, instead, on becoming an artist. The Philippine government seeks the return of the painting. Public domain. Later, Monet was befriended byEugne Boudin, who introduced him to paintingin the open air. He also changed the shape and size of his canvases by moving from rectangular stretchers to square and then circular stretchers. To capture its variations, he would sometimes complete a painting in one sitting, often without preparation. [37] For the next four years, he painted mostly in Argenteuil and took an interest in the colour theories of chemist Michel Eugne Chevreul. He submitted two paintings to the Salon in 1880, one of which was accepted. Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. For the rest of the decade, he focused on the elemental aspect of nature. [12][53] He travelled to the Netherlands in 1886 to paint the tulips. To achieve his desired outcome, he began to label his tubes of paint, kept a strict order on his palette and wore a straw hat to negate glare. Oscar-Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840, in Paris, France. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. In contrast to Manets masterpiece, which was a shocking adaptation of a Renaissance visual idea to a contemporary setting, Monets painting was an utterly contemporary yet unprovocative representation of a group of fashionably dressed picnickers in the forest of Fontainebleau. At his home in Giverny, Monet created the water-lily pond that served as inspiration for his last series of paintings. His father was a businessman and his mother was a singer. [3], His parents were married on June 28, 1870. These series were frequently exhibited in groupsfor example, his images of haystacks (1890/91) and the Rouen cathedral (1894). Though he passed away in 1926 at the age of 86, Monet left behind an artistic legacy that lives on to this day. [68] The gardens were Monet's greatest source of inspiration for 40 years. [81] He approached painting by formulating the ideas and features in his mind, taking the "motif in large masses" and transcribing them through memory and imagination. The Cliffs at Etretat, 1885, Clark Institute, Williamstown, Sailboats behind the needle at Etretat, 1885, Two paintings from a series of grainstacks, 189091: Grainstacks in the Sunlight, Morning Effect, Grainstacks, end of day, Autumn, 18901891, Art Institute of Chicago, Poplars (Autumn), 1891, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Poplars at the River Epte, 1891 Tate, London, Rouen Cathedral at sunset, 1893, Muse Marmottan Monet, Rouen Cathedral, Morning Light, 1894, J. Paul Getty Museum, The Seine Near Giverny, 1897, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Morning on the Seine, 1898, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Charing Cross Bridge, 1899, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Charing Cross Bridge, London, 18991901, Saint Louis Art Museum, Two paintings from a series of The Houses of Parliament, London, 190001, Art Institute of Chicago, London, Houses of Parliament. But his life as a painter did not begin until he was befriended by Eugne Boudin, who introduced the somewhat arrogant student to the practicethen uncommonof painting in the open air. 4,512 Claude Monet Premium High Res Photos Browse 4,512 claude monet stock photos and images available, or search for claude monet haystacks or claude monet painting to find more great stock photos and pictures. [94], In 1978, Monet's garden in Givernywhich had grown decrepit over fifty yearswas restored and opened to the public. View all sizes. 1. See also Snow at Argenteuil, Le port de Trouville (Breakwater at Trouville, Low Tide), 1870, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest[59], La plage de Trouville, 1870, National Gallery, London. After becoming known for making caricatures of his teachers and people living in town, Monet met landscape artist Eugene Bodin, who taught him how to paint outside. Here is a timeline of Claude Monet's life. Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Madame Monet in a Japanese Kimono, 1876, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Le Bateau-atelier, 1876, Barnes collection, Flowers on the Riverbank at Argenteuil, 1877, Pola Museum of Art, Japan, Vtheuil in the Fog, 1879, Muse Marmottan Monet, Paris, Study of a Figure Outdoors: Woman with a Parasol, Facing Left, 1886, Muse d'Orsay, In 1883, Monet and his family rented a house and gardens in Giverny, which provided him domestic stability he had not yet enjoyed. And given the continued popularity of his work, its likely that there will be even more Monet descendants in the future. Camille was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1876. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Alice, Monet's second wife, was consumed by jealousy of her departed rival and destroyed all photographic records of Camille. [78] Due to his later works being ignored by artists, art historians, critics and the public few attended the showing. From 1883, Monet lived in Giverny, also in northern France, where he purchased a house and property and began a vast landscaping project, including a water-lily pond. [16] In the summer of 1887 he met John Singer Sargent whose experimentation with figure painting out of doors intrigued him; the pair went on to frequently influence each other. There has been an interesting movement in art going on in France called the Impressionist Movement, and I am one of the main artists of Impressionism. Alongside Jean was a woman Julie Vellay, a companion of Camille Pissarro, rather than his mother. Claude Monet was a French painter who pioneered the Impressionist movement and tirelessly promoted it throughout his career. [1] He was the son of Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubre. [81] Monetwho was apprehensive, following Honor Daumier and Mary Cassatt's botched surgeriesstated that he would rather have poor sight and perhaps abandon painting than forego "a little of these things that I love". Monets first success as an artist came when he was 15, with the sale of caricatures that were carefully observed and well drawn. [83][81], During World War I, in which his younger son, Michel, served, Monet painted a Weeping Willow series as homage to the French fallen soldiers. His parents were named Claude Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubre Monet and Claude was their second son. He forwent garish colours or "coarse application" for emphasised colour schemes of blue and green. In addition, around 1905, Monet gradually modified his aesthetics by abandoning the perimeter of the body of water and therefore modifying perspective. [8][nb 1] He is buried at the Giverny Church Cemetery, Giverny. Published on May 19, 2021. [49] The paintings were well received by critics, who especially praised the way he captured the arrival and departures of the trains. He began drawing caricatures of people that were quite good. [23] Monet often painted alongside Renoir and Alfred Sisley,[24] both of whom shared his desire to articulate new standards of beauty in conventional subjects. His latest novel, " Planes ," was published in May, 2022. Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840 on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the ninth arrondissement of Paris. [61] He often depicted the suburban and rural leisure activities of Paris and as a young artist experimented with still lifes. Comprising forty-eight paintings dating from 1903 to 1908, representing a series of landscapes and water lily scenes, this exhibition was once again a success.[34]. [57], La Grenouillre 1869, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; a small plein-air painting created with broad strokes of intense colour. in Giverny, France, This form allows you to report an error or to submit additional information about this family tree: Claude MONET (1840), Copyright Wikipdia authors - This article is under licence CC BY-SA 3.0. To this end, as a young man, he visited the Salon and familiarised himself with the works of older painters, and made friends with other young artists. In the late 1860s, douard Manet was the hero of Claude Monet. His interest in the figure continued for the next four yearsreaching its crest in 1877 and concluding altogether in 1890. by Claude Monet 19th Century, oil on canvas 5 x 100 cm. They had two children named Jean and Michel. We recognize that limiting ourselves to 10 pieces is a disgrace since the French painter is one of the major representatives of Impressionism. [15][28][12] Monet loved his family dearly, painting many portraits of them such as child with a cup, a portrait of Jean Monet. When Claude Monet was five years old, he and his family moved to the Normandy coast, nearLe Havre, France. [4], When Jean was a young child his mother and father had fled France during the Franco-Prussian War. The English painters John Constable and J.M.W. Books & Fiction Get book. Junto con otros artistas, Monet fue . [24] His interest in light and reflection began in the late 1860s and lasted throughout his career. She was a kind and loving woman who helped to care for her husband and son. Mc tiu ca tc phm quy m ln ny (100 "x 81"); c sng tc mt . [15] In contrast to the last two decades of his career, Monet favoured working aloneand felt that he was always better when he did, having regularly "long[ed] for solitude, away from crowded tourist resorts and sophisticated urban settings". [2] The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant, exhibited in 1874 (the "exhibition of rejects") initiated by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon. Speaking of Monet's body of work, Wildenstein said that it is "so extensive that its very ambition and diversity challenges our understanding of its importance". [63] She died the next year. In 1862, he joined the studio of Charles Gleyre in Paris . This is the Claude Monet biography for kids. [116] Le Bassin aux Nympheas, also known as Japanese Footbridge over the Water-Lily Pond at Giverny, is part of Monet's famed Water Lilies series. [18] His time in Algeria had a powerful effect on Monet, who later said that the light and vivid colours of North Africa "contained the gem of my future researches". At an early age, Monet developed a love of drawing. He was in Paris in 1859 and three years later he entered the studio of Charles Gleyre, where he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frdric Bazille. Capturing Monet's lifestyle, Monet's Palate Cookbook includes beautiful photographs by Steven Rothfeld, descriptions of the house interiors and gardens, French entertaining tips, and more. He could not finish it in a timely manner and instead submitted The Woman in the Green Dress and Pav de Chailly to acceptance. Monets son, Michel, had three children: Claude, Blanche, and Jean. [12][21], He married Camille on 28 June 1870, just before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. [86] Between 1883 and 1908, Monet travelled to the Mediterranean, where he painted landmarks, landscapes, and seascapes, including a series of paintings in Venice. Claude Monet facts for kids. Claude Monet is a French painter known for his significant contribution to the Impressionist art movement. max resolution: 1435x1200px Source. Monet had insisted that the occasion be simple; thus, only about fifty people attended the ceremony. Claude Monet was born in France in Paris on December 5, 1926. [45][46][47] The exhibition was open to anyone prepared to pay 60 francs and gave artists the opportunity to show their work without the interference of a jury. The family worked and built up the gardens, and Monet's fortunes began to change for the better as Durand-Ruel had increasing success in selling his paintings. 1845 - Monet family moves to Le Havre. Claude Monet had about 5 grandchildren. Claude Monet WORLDWIDE LARGEST COLLECTION The Muse Marmottan Monet opened its spaces to Impressionism in 1940, when it became home to Monet's iconic Impression, Sunrise. She was also a painter and most of her work was done in Giverny also. Jeffrey Meyers, "Monet in Algeria", pp 1924 "History Today" April 2015, Charles Stuckey "Monet, a Retrospective", Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 195, The texts of seven police reports, written on 2 June 9 October 1871 are included in. Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877, The Art Institute of Chicago,[100] a part of Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare series. He also learned from Eugne Louis Boudin, who was a reputed landscape painter and forerunner to the en plein air art style that Monet became famous for. He was prescribed new glasses and rejected cataract surgery for the right eye. Claude Monet was born in Paris, France on November 14, 1840. [14], In 1857, his mother died. [49] By the fourth exhibition his involvement was by means of negotiation on Caillebotte's part. The artists who started this movement were Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. He was the subject of several paintings by his father and married his step-sister, Blanche Hosched . [13] Monet had a strong relationship with Jean, claiming that Camille was his lawful wife so Jean would be considered legitimate. He was the subject of several paintings by his father and married his step-sister, Blanche Hosched. Examples of Nazi-looted Monet works include: "Monet" redirects here. The exceptional achievements of Monets prolific youthful period can be measured in works completed between 1865 and 1870, before he had begun to fragment his brushstrokes into the characteristic broken touches that were to become the hallmark of Impressionist style. Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 to Louise Justine Aubr e Monet and Claude Adolphe Monet. (He signed his juvenilia "O. [15][43] More progressive critics praised the depiction of modern lifeLouis Edmond Duranty called their style a "revolution in painting". Learn about Monet's paintings of water lilies. Although his mother, Louise-Justine Aubre Monet, supported his ambitions to be a painter, his father, Claude-Adolphe, disapproved and wanted him to pursue a career in business. [45][46][47] Another exhibition was held in 1876, again in opposition to the Salon. Setting sun ', 1892-94. [29] Monet's father stopped financially supporting him as a result of the relationship. [15] The paintings do not focus on the grand Medieval building, but on the play of light and shade across its surface, transforming the solid masonry. This informal training was interrupted by a call to military service; he served from 1861 to 1862 in Algeria, where he was excited by the African light and colour. Only one photo is known to have survived. [12] In 1874, he signed a six-and-a-half year lease and moved into a newly built "rose-colored house with green shutters" in Argenteuil, where he painted fifteen paintings of his garden from a panoramic perspective. 1840 - The birth of Oscar Claude Monet 1845 - The Monet family moves to Le Havre, where Claude learns to paint nature 1857 - Claude's mother passes away, Now "able to see the real colours", he began to destroy canvases from his pre-operative period. he began drawing as a boy when his family moved to normandy after becoming known for making caricatures of his teachers and people living in town monet met landscape artist eugene bodin who taught him how to paint outside claude monet the art . While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. His parents were Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubre Monet, who were also born in Paris. [28][48], For the third exhibition, on 5 April 1877, he selected seven paintings from the dozen he had made of Gare Saint-Lazare in the past three months, the first time he had "synced as many paintings of the same site, carefully coordinating their scenes and temporalities". Impressionism, broadly viewed, was a celebration of the pleasures of middle-class life; indeed, Monets subject matter from this period often involved domestic scenes featuring his wife, son, and garden. [15][28] There he immersed himself in his work, although a temporary problem with his eyesight, probably related to stress, prevented him from working in sunlight. Monet was born in Paris in 1840 and as a child he showed great talent as an artist. In 1876, Camille Monet became seriously ill.[62] Their second son, Michel, was born in 1878, after which Camille's health deteriorated further. Claude-Adolphe Monet is Claude Monet's. Between 1860 and 1862 Monet served in Algeria as a conscript. [citation needed] In his later career, Monet "transcended" the Impressionist style and begun to push the boundaries of art. [12] White water lilies local to France were planted along with imported cultivars from South America and Egypt, resulting in a range of colours including yellow, blue and white lilies that turned pink with age. He explained: "I one day found myself looking at my beloved wife's dead face and just systematically noting the colours according to an automatic reflex". [21], In 1867 his then-mistress, Camille Doncieuxwhom he had met two years earlier as a model for his paintingsgave birth to their first child, Jean. Monet went to Paris for the birth of Jean and returned to Sainte-Adresse on the 12th of the month.[1]. His palette would again undergo change in the 1880s, with more emphasise than before on harmony between warm and cold hues. Claude Monet, Grand Canal, 1908. When he was young he met the painter Eugne Boudin who taught . For other uses, see. Claude Monet kept the painting, and never exhibited it, throughout his life. Camille Monet on a Garden Bench displays the garden of the villa, and what some have argued to be Camille's grief upon learning of her father's death. The house was close enough to the local schools for the children to attend, and the surrounding landscape provided numerous natural areas for Monet to paint. The Sun Shining through the Fog, 1904, Muse d'Orsay, Grand Canal, Venice, 1908, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Grand Canal, Venice, 1908, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk, 1908, National Museum Cardiff, Wales, San Giorgio Maggiore, 1908, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Following his return from London, Monet painted mostly from nature, in his own garden; its water lilies, its pond and its bridge. Early Life of Oscar Claude Monet. [78], In 1922 a prescription of mydriatics provided short-lived relief. [15] Following his optical operation in 1923, Monet returned to his style from before a decade ago. On November 14th, 2001, a Google Doodle was made for Claude Monet's 161st birthday, depicting the Google logo There was a barn that doubled as a painting studio, orchards and a small garden. He first visited Paris in 185960, where he was impressed by the work of the Barbizon-school painters Charles Daubigny and Constant Troyon. Blanche Hosched-Monet was the stepdaughter and the daughter-in-law of Claude Monet. Whole artwork view.. In 1875, he returned to figure painting with Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, after effectively abandoning it with The Luncheon. [24][61] These series of paintings provided widespread critical and financial success; in 1898, 61 paintings were exhibited at the Petit gallery. In 1841 Claude's parents got him baptised and named his Oscar Claude Monet. This event has more than biographical significance, for it was Monets childhood, spent along the beaches, and the intimate knowledge he gained of the sea and the rapidly shifting Norman weather, that would one day give rise to his fresh vision of nature. Although his father preferred Monet to go into the shipping business, his . He was baptized as a Catholic but later he was an atheist. [89] He wished to demonstrate how light altered colour and perception of reality. [14][15] Around this time, he was trying to establish himself as a figure painter who depicted the "explicitly contemporary, bourgeois", an intention that continued into the 1870s. Even as a kid he was able to make some extra money drawing pictures of people. Claude Monet was born in Paris, the second son of Adolphe Monet his wife Louise Justine Aubre. [54], The Green Wave, 1866, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Women in the Garden, 18661867, Muse d'Orsay, Paris[55]. [66] That same year his first major retrospective show was held. [34], These canvases were created with great difficulty: Monet spent a significant amount of time reworking them in order to find the perfect effects and impressions. The Impressionist movement was a art movement that began in the late 1800s. Artist: Claude Monet. Monet displayed 18 paintings, including The Beach at Sainte-Adresse which showcased multiple Impressionist characteristics. [64] John Berger describes the work as "a blizzard of white, grey, purplish paint a terrible blizzard of loss which will forever efface her features. As Monet's wealth grew, his garden evolved. Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. [75] Monet's final journey would be to Venice, with Alice in 1908. He continually postponed the Durand-Ruel exhibition until he was satisfied with the works. "[65], Monet's study of the Seine continued. Fourny-Dargre, Sophie, and Claude Monet (1992). [3][4] Despite being baptised Catholic, Monet later became an atheist. [109], Falaises prs de Dieppe (Cliffs Near Dieppe) has been stolen on two occasions: once in 1998 (in which the museum's curator was convicted of the theft and jailed for five years and two months along with two accomplices) and most recently in August 2007. He began to think in terms of colours and shapes rather than scenes and objects. [61] His dedication to such a portrayal of landscapes resulted in Monet reprimanding Renoir for defying it. [12][15][33][34] He repeatedly painted the Thames, Hyde Park and Green Park. Helen Gardner writes: Monet, with a scientific precision, has given us an unparalleled and unexcelled record of the passing of time as seen in the movement of light over identical forms. Claude Monet y sus obras. [87] Monet often travelled alone at this timefrom France to Normanday to London; to the Rivera and Rouenin search of new and more challenging subjects. [24][26][27] Having debuted at the Salon in 1865 with La Pointe de la Hve at Low Tide and Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur to large praise, he hoped Le djeuner sur l'herbe would help him break through into the Salon of 1866. [107] In 2006, the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society published a paper providing evidence that these were painted in situ at St Thomas' Hospital over the river Thames. Later that year he continued to study in Paris, this time with the academician Charles Gleyre, in whose atelier he met the artists Frdric Bazille, Alfred Sisley, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. [108] In 1981, Ronald Pickvance noted that Monet's works after 1880 were increasingly receiving scholarly attention. In addition, there are a number of great-grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren. Michel Monet (brother) Jean Monet (August 8, 1867 - February 10, 1914) was the eldest son of French Impressionist artist Claude Monet and Camille Doncieux Monet and the brother of Michel Monet. After several postponements dating back to 1906, the exhibition titled Les Nymphas ended up opening on 6 May 1909. Under the Nazi regime, both in Germany from 1933 and in German-occupied countries until 1945, Jewish art collectors of Monet were looted by Nazis and their agents. When he deemed them unsuccessful he did not hesitate to destroy them. He left behind over 2000 paintings, not including his drawings, pastels, and sketches. Without black, you cannot get that sharp value contrast that you might see in a Rembrandt. [30], With help from the art collector Louis-Joachim Gaudibert, he reunited with Camille and moved to tretat the following year. Who Painted the Most Expensive Paintings in the World? When Monet was 5 years old, the family moved to the port city of Le Havre in the Normandy region in the northwest of France. Claudes grandfather, Claude-Louis Monet, was a successful businessman who helped to support the family. Monets choice of Algeria for service was perhaps a result of his admiration for the Romantic painter Eugne Delacroix, whose colouristic work had been influenced by a visit to Morocco in 1832. (1997) argues the occurrence of a deterioration from the late 1860s onwards led to a diminishing of sharp lines. 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. [15][70], Dissatisfied with the limitations of Impressionism, Monet began to work on series of paintings displaying single subjectshaystacks, poplars and the Rouen Cathedralto resolve his frustration. On 20 May 1841, he was baptized in the local parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as Oscar-Claude, but his parents called him simply Oscar. He was the second son of Claude-Adolphe and Louise-Justine Aubre Monet, both of them second-generation Parisians. [52] After developing methods for painting transient effects, Monet would go on to seek more demanding subjects, new patrons and collectors; his paintings produced in the early 1870s left a lasting impact on the movement and his peersmany of whom moved to Argenteuil as a result of admiring his depiction. What kind of children did Claude Monet have? They were thrown out of the inn they were staying in for non-payment. He was the second son of Claude-Adolphe and Louise-Justine Aubre Monet, both of them second-generation Parisians. Many of Monet's most famous paintings featured the beautifully landscaped grounds of his . [15] He would ultimately make over 250 paintings of the Waterlilies. His daughter in law took over his household after the death of her mother when Monet became depressed. An inheritance from his father, together with sales of his paintings, did, however, enable them to hire two servants and a gardener by 1872. The experience set the direction for Monet, who for more than 60 years would concentrate on visible phenomena and on the innovation of effective methods to transform perception into pigment. [1] During his long career, he was the most consistent and prolific practitioner of impressionism's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein air (outdoor) landscape painting.