What Inspired Claude Monet?
The French Impressionist painter Claude Monet was primarily inspired by nature. Throughout his life, his paintings focused on outdoor scenes. The area around his home in Giverny was a particularly strong source of inspiration for Monet. His style of painting was more concerned with form and light than realism, which led to the term “Impressionism.”
Claude Monet was one of the most successful and best-known artists of the Impressionist movement, and he was on the forefront of the movement. Claude Monet lived from 1840 to 1926. He was born in Paris, and died in Giverny. He spent his life finding places throughout France to use as inspiration for his paintings. His early paintings, from 1861 to 1874, were often marine scenes with the Seine river, sailboats or stormy coasts. From 1887 to 1889, he was inspired by the water lilies at Giverny, and painted many paintings featuring the water lilies. From 1889 to 1894, he was particularly interested in the effects of light on landscapes, and explored these effects in a series of paintings of haystacks. From 1900 to 1908, he was inspired by modern bridges, train stations and the hustle and bustle of city life, and urban settings and contemporary technology featured in his paintings. In his later life, he made large-scale paintings that primarily focused on landscapes and outdoor scenes.
