Character Catalog

A view of the port of Le Havre in the morning mist, this painting inadvertently gave its name to the Impressionist movement at the 1874 exhibition.

An outdoor portrait of Camille Monet and their son Jean on a hillside, a masterpiece of spontaneity and luminosity that embodies the Impressionist aesthetic.

A series of twelve canvases depicting the Parisian train station, its trains and swirls of steam. Monet applies Impressionist principles to a resolutely modern and industrial subject.

A series of around thirty canvases depicting haystacks at different times of day and seasons. This series marks the beginning of Monet's systematic approach to changing light.

More than thirty variations of the cathedral facade painted at different times of day, demonstrating that the subject matters less than the light that transforms it.

A monumental ensemble of panels depicting the water lily pond at Giverny, installed in the Orangerie des Tuileries. These immersive works are considered precursors of abstract art.

One of the first depictions of the Japanese bridge over the Giverny pond, inaugurating a theme that Monet would explore for nearly thirty years.

I am in a state of perpetual anxiety and I would very much like to be in Paris to see what you are doing. Here I am working a great deal, I have about twenty canvases well under way.

Impression — I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there must be some impression in it… and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape!

I am chasing nature without being able to grasp it. What I want to render is what lies between the motif and myself.

This is not a country for working — everything changes from one moment to the next. Today I could do nothing; the fog was too thick, then all of a sudden the light was so beautiful that I wanted to set to work, and everything had changed again.

Monet lived in Giverny from 1883 until his death in 1926. There he created his famous water garden with the Japanese bridge and water lilies, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for his final great works.

Monet grew up in Le Havre, where he painted his first works en plein air. It was in the port of Le Havre that he painted Impression, Sunrise in 1872, the founding work of Impressionism.

Monet settled in Argenteuil from 1871 to 1878, a period of intense creative work along the Seine. There he painted scenes of boating, regattas, and modern suburban life on the outskirts of Paris.

Between 1892 and 1894, Monet painted more than thirty canvases of the façade of Rouen Cathedral from windows directly opposite, capturing the variations of light at different times of day and across the seasons.

This museum has housed since 1927 the eight monumental panels of the Water Lilies donated by Monet to the French state, installed in two oval rooms specially designed according to the artist's wishes.

Monet painted en plein air and carried his folding easel to his motif, sometimes in difficult weather conditions, to capture natural light.

The invention of tin paint tubes allowed Monet to easily carry his colors outdoors. His palette favored light tones and banished pure black.

Inspired by Daubigny, Monet had a covered boat fitted out as a floating studio to paint reflections on the Seine as close to the water as possible.

Monet used a large parasol to shield his canvas from direct sun glare and to control the light on his palette during plein air sessions.

An indispensable accessory for the plein air painter, the hat protected Monet from the sun during his long hours of work outdoors.

For his series, Monet brought several canvases to his motif and moved from one to the next as the light evolved throughout the hours.