Claude Monet

Claude Monet's paintings examine how color and light change the appearance of a place. Views of the Seine, gardens, coastlines, and buildings combine recognizable subjects with brushwork that remains visible on the surface. Painting with Renoir at La Grenouillère in 1869 brought figures, boats, and reflections into studies of leisure beside the river. Later series returned to grainstacks, poplars, and Rouen Cathedral under different lighting conditions, comparing related views rather than treating one appearance as definitive. At Giverny, the garden and lily pond supplied subjects for extended studies of reflection and water, sometimes reducing the place of a conventional horizon. These paintings join outdoor observation with compositions developed and reconsidered in the studio. Repeated motifs make small changes of atmosphere and color consequential, while differences of scale and framing alter the relationship between the painted surface and the recognizable site.