Claude Monet

The shimmering light and breathtaking colors of Claude Monet's work have made him one of the world's most popular artists for almost a century. His studies of the changing effects of sunlight on haystacks, churches, fields, and water gardens were unique in his time and extremely influential to subsequent generations. As a founder of the style known as impressionism, Monet broke with many traditions to create a new method of painting--and of seeing the world around us. Without his innovations, the course of twentieth-century art would have been quite different.
Claude-Oscar Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840. When he was five years old, his family moved to Le Havre, a port on the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Paris. Monet's father owned a grocery store from which he supplied sailors and shipping companies. Young Monet most likely encountered many colorful characters in his father's store. He became known for his talent at drawing caricatures of people around town. In fact, he ...