Why did Claude Monet paint the canals and palaces of Venice?

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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 chose to paint the canals and palaces of Venice because the city offered a perfect subject for Impressionism. He began this series in 1908 and continued it in 1909, eventually refining the works at Giverny until 1912.1

For Monet, Venice provided a rich combination of light, water, movement, architecture, and reflections. While these paintings share the Impressionist focus on these elements, they are more generalized than his earlier series, such as the stacks of wheat or the cathedral series, which were more specifically tied to particular weather effects.1