When Claude Monet exhibited his paintings for the first time in Paris, he acknowledged no teacher, intending to claim complete originality for his works. Since then, many writers have sought to corroborate his originality, latching on to statements such as

‘What I do here will at least have the merit of not resembling anybody. Because it is simply the expression of what I’ve experienced by myself’ [letter to Bazille, 1866]

In fact, Monet was gregarious, passionately interested in the paintings of his predecessors and contemporaries, and he made common cause with his fellow impressionists, being a principal organizer of their first exhibitions.

This book aims to recreate the artistic milieu of Monet and show his rapport with the unconventional non-academic currents of French art – including the succeeding generation, such as Paul Gauguin.

Paintings by Monet are grouped with the works of other artists connected to him to suggest the range of his experience, his influences, and the influence of his art, from his beginnings in the 1860s to the years after 1900. The artists used for comparison include Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, Degas and Cezanne.