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Why did Claude Monet paint outdoors instead of only working in a studio?

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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 *Self-Portrait with a Beret*, oil on canvas by Claude Monet, 1886; in a private collection.

Claude Monet painted outdoors, a practice known as en plein air, primarily to capture the fleeting, transient effects of light and color on a landscape at any given moment.12

Unlike the traditional academic practice of finishing paintings in a studio from sketches, Monet sought to record his immediate visual impressions directly from nature. This approach was facilitated by the mid-19th-century invention of portable, collapsible tin paint tubes and lightweight easels, which allowed artists to work entirely out-of-doors.321

Monet’s commitment to this method was revolutionary. To accurately document how light changed throughout the day, he often worked on multiple canvases of the same subject simultaneously, switching between them as the light shifted. While he sometimes returned to his studio to "harmonize" or rework these canvases, the foundation of his art remained his direct, objective observation of the natural world. By abandoning the conventional studio-based approach, Monet was able to transform his perception of visible phenomena into pigment, creating the shimmering, vibrant style that defined Impressionism.1243