Claude Monet

Introduction & Top Questions
Childhood, caricatures, and art instruction
Early work
First Impressionist paintings
Later Impressionism
Last years
Legacy

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Painting by Claude Monet, Self-portrait in Beret, 1886, showing Monet with a full beard, dark beret, and coat against a light, textured background.

Claude Monet: Caricature of a Man with a Big Cigar

Claude Monet: Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert

Claude Monet: Still Life with Flowers and Fruit

Claude Monet: The Beach at Sainte-Adresse

Oil painting La Grenouillere by Claude Monet shows people gathered on a small island and dock, with rowboats and shimmering reflections on the Seine River, trees in the background.

The thumbnail image shows a smiling woman in a beret in front of two Impressionist paintings.

At a Glance

Claude Monet summary

Quizzes

Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society

Ultimate Art Quiz

Close-up of a palette held by a man. Mixing paint, painting, color mixing.

Artists, Painters, & Architects

Art Nouveau wall covering of poppies by Albert Ainsworth of machine printed on oatmeal paper made in Hackensack, New Jersey, c. 1905.

Art at Random Quiz

63 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Visual Arts Quizzes

Tate Modern extension Switch House, London, England. (Tavatnik, museums). Photo dated 2017.

Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists?

Related Questions

How did Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir work together at La Grenouillère?
How did Claude Monet influence American artists who worked in Giverny?
How did Claude Monet paint the same subject in different light and weather?
How did Claude Monet’s Japanese Footbridge paintings become more abstract?
How did Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny become part of his art?
How did Claude Monet’s late paintings influence Abstract Expressionist artists?
How did Claude Monet’s work differ from the traditional paintings shown at the Salon?
How did Eugène Boudin influence Claude Monet’s approach to painting?
How did Georges Clemenceau encourage Claude Monet’s Water Lilies project?
How did Impression, Sunrise give Impressionism its name?
How did Japanese prints influence Claude Monet’s art?
How did Paul Durand-Ruel support Claude Monet’s career?
How did cataracts affect the colors in Claude Monet’s later paintings?
How did the Normandy coast influence Claude Monet’s paintings?
How many Water Lilies paintings did Claude Monet create?
How many sons did Claude Monet and Camille Monet have?
What did Claude Monet mean by “instantaneity” in the Haystacks series?
What did Claude Monet paint in his Gare Saint-Lazare series?
When and where was Claude Monet born?
When did Claude Monet begin having problems with cataracts?
When did Claude Monet marry Alice Hoschedé?
When did Claude Monet paint Impression, Sunrise?
When did Claude Monet paint the Haystacks series?
When did Claude Monet receive treatment for his cataracts?
Where are Claude Monet’s large Water Lilies panels displayed in Paris?
Where did Claude Monet serve in the military from 1861 to 1862?
Where did Claude Monet spend most of his childhood?
Where did Claude Monet study informally in Paris?
Which London landmarks did Claude Monet paint in his Thames series?
Which artists became Claude Monet’s friends in Charles Gleyre’s studio?
Who was Camille Doncieux in Claude Monet’s life?
Why did Claude Monet focus on haystacks in his paintings?
Why did Claude Monet leave France for London in 1870?
Why did Claude Monet paint outdoors instead of only working in a studio?
Why did Claude Monet paint the canals and palaces of Venice?
Why did art critic Louis Leroy criticize Impression, Sunrise?
Why did interest in Claude Monet’s art revive in the 1950s?
Why did the Impressionist artists organize an independent exhibition in 1874?
Why were Claude Monet’s Haystacks paintings successful when they were exhibited in 1891?
Why were Claude Monet’s Water Lilies murals installed in oval rooms at the Orangerie?
What was Claude Monet’s early life like?
Where was Claude Monet educated?
Why is Claude Monet famous?
How did Claude Monet influence others?
Why is Edvard Munch so famous?
What was the tragedy of Edvard Munch?
What is Edvard Munch most known for?
What was the impact of Edvard Munch’s work on modern art?
What was significant about Henri Matisse’s Jazz?
Why is Piet Mondrian so famous?

Visual Arts Painting Painters

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External Websites

Artnet - Biography of Claude Monet
Guggenheim - Biography of Claude Monet
The Met - Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Web Gallery of Art - Biography of Claude Monet
National Gallery of Art - Claude Monet
Claude MonetÂ’s house and gardens - Claude Monet - Timeline
Art in Context - Claude Monet Paintings Â– A Look at 15 of MonetÂ’s Greatest Works
World History Encyclopedia - Claude Monet
The Art Story - Biography of Claude Monet
Making Art Fun! - Art Library - Biography of Claude Monet

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Claude Monet - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Claude Monet - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Claude Monet

French painter

Written by

William C. Seitz

George R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the History of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1971–74. Author of Claude Monet.

William C. Seitz

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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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Last updated

Nov. 10, 2026 •History

Claude Monet (born November 14, 1840, Paris, France—died December 5, 1926, Giverny) was a French painter who became the initiator, leader, and unswerving advocate of the Impressionist style. In his mature works, Monet developed his method of producing repeated studies of the same motif in a series, changing canvases with the light or as his interest shifted. These series were frequently exhibited in groups—for example, his images of stacks of wheat (1890/91; often called haystacks)...

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