Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840 in Paris. In the beginning, his paintings were influenced by the popular Realist school but when he was 18, Monet took the advice of his art teacher and began to paint outside where he could really see light and shadows in nature. When he was 19, he studied at a famous art school in Paris and over the next five years met other artists who shared his fascination with color and light

In 1870, he and his new wife fled to London to avoid the war between France and Prussia. In England, he became friends with other Impressionist artists. Monet and his wife moved to the Netherlands in 1871 and three years later, he exhibited a painting called Impression: Sunrise, which many claim was the inspiration for the name of the new art movement.

In 1883, Monet moved to the beautiful village of Giverny in Normandy, France where he spent the next 43 years working on what he called "the division of colors." He wrote: "The most important thing is to know how to use the colors. Their choice is a matter of habit." He loved cobalt blue, cadmium yellow, emerald green, and ultramarine blue. He used purple for shadows instead of black, and combined blues, greens and reds to get dark colors. It was not just his use of color that set Monet apart - it was the way he could cover a canvas with small brush strokes that looked blurry up close but, when seen from a distance, became a complete picture full of light and movement.

He started a project in 1897 painting 12 large canvases of water lilies. He had planted the flowers because they would add beauty to his garden and ended up painting nothing else for the next 30 years. When he was done, he donated The Water Lilies to the people of France to celebrate the end of World War I.

Around 1908, Monet developed cataracts and his eyesight began to fail, but he continued painting. In 1923 he had cataract surgery and his sight improved a little but not completely. "My bad sight means that I see everything through a mist. Even so, it is beautiful, and that's what I would like to show." Three years later, he developed lung cancer and died on December 5, 1926 at his home in Giverny. Today, his work can be seen in art galleries around the world.