Monet

A major biography of the artist, supported by a wealth of examples of his work.

Monet was the most typical and the most individual Impressionist painter. But while the painter was faithful and persevering in the pursuit of his motifs, his personal life followed a more restless course. Parisian by birth, he discovered painting as a youth in the provinces, where one of his homes, Argenteuil, has come to represent the artistic flowering and official establishment of Impressionism as a movement.

Join artist Claude Monet as he chases his cat through his greatest works! Claude Monet's iconic house was also home to a small white pottery cat. When this cat awakes from its nap and comes to life, it jumps into one of Monet's famous paintings! The cat can't be caught as it frolicks and meanders through Monet's greatest works, always just too far out of Monet's reach. Inspired by the actual porcelain cat that was prominently displayed in Monet's studio, this book offers a fun feline perspective and is a great way to teach kids about Monet's art.

From a world authority on impressionism and nineteenth-century French art comes this new addition to the World of Art series on the art and life of Claude Monet. One of the most famous and admired painters of all time, Claude Monet (1840– 1926) was the architect of impressionism—a revolution that gave birth to modern art. His technique of painting outside at the seashore or in city streets was as radically new as his subject matter: the landscapes and middle-class pastimes of a newly industrialized Paris. Working with unprecedented immediacy and authenticity, Monet claimed that his work was both natural and true, and therefore, entirely novel. In Monet, James H. Rubin, one of the world’s foremost specialists in nineteenth-century French art, traces Monet’s development, from his early work as a caricaturist to the late paintings of water lilies and his garden at Giverny. Rubin explores the cultural currents that helped shape Monet’s work, including the utopian thought that gave rise to his politics, his interest in Japanese prints and gardening, and his relationship with earlier French landscape painters and contemporaries such as E´douard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Featuring more than 150 color illustrations of his key works, Rubin establishes Monet as the inspiration for generations of avant-garde artists and a true patriarch of modern art.

Monet's revolutionary approach to painting allowed a new understanding of light, composition, and form. By exploring how his paintings were conceived, constructed, and executed, aspiring artists can broaden their technical knowledge and vastly expand their creative horizons. The first in a new series of instructional books, Paint Like Monet takes the reader on a guided journey through the artist's methods, tools, materials, and techniques. Step-by-step exercises and detailed explanations of composition and context are complemented by ideas on developing a personal style and tips on how to check and improve a painting in progress. This hands-on encounter with Impressionist theory is rich with insight and inspiration for anyone interested in art-offering a master class with one of history's greatest artists.

This beautiful slipcased volume offers an intimate tour inside Monet’s home and through the idyllic Giverny garden that inspired his most iconic paintings. Monet first spotted the village of Giverny from the window of a train and then relocated to the rural haven outside Paris in 1883. Monet was an artist with a passion for painting landscapes and outdoor scenes, and the garden at Giverny soon became the Impressionist master’s greatest artistic accomplishment and a catalyst for his work. In 1890, Monet began renovating it, installing a picturesque water lily pond inspired by the Japanese prints he avidly collected. The setting of Monet’s Water Lilies series—his most famous works—it is now the most visited garden of its size in the Western world. The beautifully vivid illustrations of Monet’s paintings, his home, and the grounds give readers unprecedented access into the flowery paradise to which Monet dedicated the last forty years of his life. Lovers of garden design and Impressionist art are invited on an intimate tour via this handsome volume.

Situated in a dress circle position on the slopes of the village of Les Avants, overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Chalet Monet is the magnificent home of Dame Joan Sutherland OM AC DBE and her husband, Maestro Richard Bonynge AC CBE. In his charming, eloquent, conversational style, Richard Bonynge takes us inside the home and life he has shared with Dame Joan, and in so doing provides rare insight into two of the greatest international cultural icons in opera of all time. The Chalet was introduced to Dame Joan and Richard by their close friend Noel Coward who resided in the neighbouring property. The opulence of each of the distinctive rooms over the four floors and vistas from the Chalet is artfully captured in stunning photography. Paintings and objets d'art line the walls and fill the cabinets, each with their own provenance; presented by royalty or celebrities, embroided by Dame Joan or collected by Richard. Through the stories of these artefacts, told by Richard in eloquent conversational style, we learn about the life and times of two of the most formidable figures associated with opera in the 20th Century. For those fortunate enough to have discovered and experienced the thrill of opera and all the larger than life characters associated with it, to enter Chalet Monet is somewhat of a fairy tale experience that could be taken right out of a Cinderella story ... Chalet Monet is a house with a thousand stories. It is living history, theatrical, a beautiful home with enormous spirit like its owners. It radiates grandeur yet intimacy with places to sit and contemplate, views to linger over, books to be read, paintings to admire and music to listen to. It is a treasure trove for the senses where many a story has been told or begun. Only its walls and its owners remember the decades of music making here and possibly the odd neighbour and the cows on the grassy slopes ... Thank you, Richard for allowing us to enter your private and colourful world. From the Preface by Fiona Janes Artistic Director | General Manager Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation