Brief Biography-Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840, in 1845 the family moved to Le Havre where he studied in the school of arts from 1851. Eugene Boudin whom he met a few years later, introduced him to the concept of en plein air. In 1859, Monet moved to Paris and became friends with Camille Pissarro at the Atelier Suisse. The Atelier was an informal academy which Monet preferred over École des Beaux-Arts to the dissatisfaction of his father.
In 1860, the army conscripted him, and he served in Algeria for two years. On his return to Paris, Johan Jongkind became a profound influence on him. In 1862, he studied under Charles Gleyre alongside Pierre Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, and in Trouville, he worked with Gustave Courbet in 1865. In these relationships emerged the form of painting we know today as 'Impressionism'. In Le Havre, Manet painted 'An Impression.' which is where the word originates.
During the Franco-Prussian war, he went to London with Pissarro where they scrutinised the works of John Constable and JMW Turner, works which did not necessarily impress Monet. It was here he met the art dealer Durand-Ruel. After the Royal Academy exhibition turned down his works in 1871, Monet went to Zaandam in Holland and back on to Paris where he met Édouard Manet in Argenteuil. There he undertook many of his most famous paintings. In 1883, he stayed in Giverny where, in the nineties, his renowned lily pond became his setting for the Nymphéas pictures.
In the eighties, he travelled throughout Europe, and due to exhibitions held worldwide by Durand-Ruel he, at last, became quite successful.
Changing light conditions and hue tones are the primary features in Monet's work, which are mainly evident in his paintings of haystacks and Rouen Cathedral. Monet can arguably be considered today as the Michelangelo of Impressionism.