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Claude Monet, born in Paris, France on November 14, 1840, was one of the most important painters of French Impressionism. He had the talent to capture the changing colors of light in nature more so than any other artist of his time. He used small dabs of contrasting colors, which he dabbed onto his canvases in order to re-create and intensify the natural luminosity of light. In this way he created what has come to be known as the broken color technique, in which the colors are blended by the eye of the observer, rather than on the palette itself. This helped paintings achieve a new level of vibrancy and glow.

Monet is especially famous for his series of Impressionistic studies of one subject at different times of the day and in various types of weather. The best known of this series is the Haystack series, those of the St. Lazare train station and the Cathedral of Rouen.

In his younger days, Monet lived in Le Harve, a port city. Here he studied under Eugene Louis Boudin, who was a landscape painter. Boudin encouraged him to paint outdoors and capture the essence of the natural scenic beauty that surrounded him. In 1802, he moved back to Paris and it was here that he came in contact with Cezanne, Renoir and Sisley. His style of painting at this time was realistic, which was accepted in artistic circles. Thus he was accepted and showed his work at official exhibitions.

After a while, his style of painting began to change. Monet began to identify more with the Impressionists and became one of the boldest experimenters of the group. The revolutionary techniques and ideas he portrayed in his works, though, were largely rejected by the public. As a result of not being able to sell his paintings, he experienced great poverty during this period.

During the Franco-Prussian War, Monet travelled widely throughout Holland and England. He returned to Paris in 1875 and helped organize the first ever exhibition of Impressionist works. The name of the exhibition was "Impressionist" and took its name from one of Monet's paintings Sunrise: an Impression. Thereafter, this name stuck to this style of painting.

He spent a lot of time working with other Impressionist painters and did characteristic works of boats, daily life scenes in villages and garden scenes. By 1883, he had become somewhat successful and could afford to move to a small estate at Giverny. Here he created a Japanes water garden and a lily pond, which became two of his favourite subjects for his paintings.

Monet remained at his home in Giverny and by the 1890's he had become very famous and wealthy. He started to lose his sight in his later years, but this did not stop him from painting. It was during this time that he painted his studies of water lilies. They can be seen at the Orangerie of the Tuileries in Paris, although two of them are in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Monet died at Giverny on December 5, 1926.

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