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Painter, 1840 to 1926

Claude Monet

American collectors bought Monet early, while Paris was still laughing. The Metropolitan Museum has some forty of his paintings, and MoMA one of the great late triptychs.

Born
1840, Paris, France
Died
1926, Giverny, France
Movement
Impressionism
In New York
4 works in 2 museums

Where to see Claude Monet in New York

Each work with the museum it hangs in. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art3 works

  1. Garden at Sainte-Adresse, by Monet: a terrace of flowers above the sea, two flags in the wind and ships on the horizon.

    Garden at Sainte-Adresse

    1867

    His father sits on a terrace above the sea at Le Havre, among gladioli and nasturtiums, with two flags snapping in the wind and steamers on the horizon.

  2. La Grenouillère, by Monet: a floating café, a small round island and rowing boats on broken water.

    La Grenouillère

    1869

    A floating café and a round islet on the Seine, with bathers, boats for hire and the river broken into dabs of black, blue and white.

  3. Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, by Monet: a Japanese footbridge arching over a pond thick with lilies, among willows.

    Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

    1899

    The Japanese footbridge in his garden at Giverny, arching over the pond in a wall of green. He painted the view twelve times that summer.

The Museum of Modern Art1 work

  1. One of the three panels of Monet's Water Lilies at the Museum of Modern Art: clouds reflected in the pond among the lily pads.

    Water Lilies

    1914 to 1926

    Three canvases, each two metres high, joined into a single stretch of pond with the clouds reflected in it and no bank or horizon. They hang in a room of their own on the fifth floor.

The life of Claude Monet

Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840 and grew up at Le Havre, on the Channel coast, where he learned to paint in the open air. In 1869 he and Renoir set up their easels side by side at a bathing place on the Seine called La Grenouillère, and worked out a way of painting moving water in separate strokes of colour.

He spent his last thirty years in his garden at Giverny, painting the lily pond on canvases that grew wider and wider. After the Second World War the painters of New York looked at those late canvases and saw their own ancestors. The Museum of Modern Art bought its first in 1955.

What to know

  • La Grenouillère, at the Met, is one of the pictures in which Impressionism was invented
  • MoMA's Water Lilies triptych is more than twelve metres wide
  • A fire at MoMA in 1958 destroyed an earlier Water Lilies, and the museum bought the triptych to replace it
Born
14 November 1840, Paris, France
Died
5 December 1926, Giverny, France

Claude Monet: common questions

Where can you see Claude Monet in New York?
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Garden at Sainte-Adresse, La Grenouillère and Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies. At the Museum of Modern Art: Water Lilies. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.
What is Claude Monet's most famous work in New York?
Garden at Sainte-Adresse, of 1867, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His father sits on a terrace above the sea at Le Havre, among gladioli and nasturtiums, with two flags snapping in the wind and steamers on the horizon.
When and where was Claude Monet born?
On 14 November 1840, at Paris, France. Claude Monet died on 5 December 1926, at Giverny, France, aged about 86.
What is Claude Monet known for?
La Grenouillère, at the Met, is one of the pictures in which Impressionism was invented. MoMA's Water Lilies triptych is more than twelve metres wide. A fire at MoMA in 1958 destroyed an earlier Water Lilies, and the museum bought the triptych to replace it. Claude Monet was a French painter, of Impressionism.

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