Monet

By Matthias Arnold

Claude Monet spent most of his life painting his own spontaneous impressions of nature and the world that was closest to him. His works provoked the description 'Impressionist', the name given to the style of art that he created together with Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley.

Today Claude Monet remains among the most beloved of classical painters: not only was he the most important of the Impressionists, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest of his profession. His genius was recognized even in his own lifetime; Paul Cezanne said of him: 'Monet is an eye, the most wonderful eye since there have been artists.'

Matthias Arnold was born in 1947 in Kassel, Germany. He studied history of art and classical archaeology in Goettingen, Marburg and Heidelberg. He gained his PhD from the University of Heidelberg. The subject of his thesis was Vincent van Gogh. He has written extensively on Impressionist artists.