Claude Monet: "Water Lilies" (1916), Giclée print on canvas

The art of Claude Monet is the epitome of Impressionism. Throughout his long career as a painter, he tirelessly sought ways to depict the ever-changing nature of light and color in its many atmospheric variations and at different times of day. Born in Paris, he grew up on the Normandy coast in Le Havre, where his father ran a small grocery store. Monet's first artistic endeavors were in caricature, but he soon turned to plein air painting. Bright pastel tones began to appear on his canvases. His paintings were repeatedly rejected by the official Paris Salon, but Monet and his friends Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley refused to be discouraged. On their joint excursions to Fontainebleau, they created magnificent, vibrant paintings en plein air, increasingly transcending the strict academic rules.