Giverny Water Lilies: Blue II

These works are after the French painter, Claude Monet, who was born November 14, 1840 in Paris. According to Laura Auricchio from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Monet was a key figure in the Impressionist movement that transformed French painting in the second half of the nineteenth century. Throughout his long career, Monet consistently depicted the landscape and leisure activities of Paris and its environs a well as the Normandy coast. He led the way to twentieth-century modernism by developing a unique style that strove to capture on canvas the very act of perceiving nature." In 1874, the artist joined with Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, and others in establishing an independent exhibition where they became known as "impressionists." Monet's subjects were the people and places he knew best. After the painters of the Barbizon school, the artist was committed to close observation of nature and naturalistic representation. While the Barbizon painters made only preliminary sketches en plein air, Monet often worked on large-scale canvases outdoors, then reworked and completed them in his studio. As Auricchio states: "His quest to capture nature more accurately also prompted him to reject European conventions governing composition, color, and perspective." In the 1890s, Monet painted series of objects (Haystacks, Poplars, Rouen Cathedral), recording how their appearance changed throughout the day. In the 1910 and 1920s, the artist focused almost exclusively on the lily pond on his property at Giverny. He died at Giverny on December 5, 1926 at the age of 86.