Oscar-Claude Monet (1840-1926) was a French painter, a founder of French Impressionist painting and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature.
Throughout his long career, Monet consistently depicted the landscape and leisure activities of Paris and its environs as well as the Normandy coast.
He led the way to twentieth-century modernism by developing a unique style that strove to capture on canvas the very act of perceiving nature.