Claude Monet

Claude Monet (1840-1926) gave Impressionism its name by accident: a critic borrowed the title of Impression, Sunrise to mock the whole group, and it stuck. What he actually pursued was light, and he pursued it by repetition, painting the same haystack, poplar row, cathedral facade or stretch of the Thames again and again as the hour and the weather changed. From 1883 he lived at Giverny, where he diverted a stream, planted the water garden and then spent the last thirty years painting it. The late water lilies were made while cataracts were taking his sight, which is part of why they dissolve. This archive holds high-resolution scans of his work, free to preview and available as originals for printing.