Claude Monet
Claude Monet (1840–1926) was a principal figure in Impressionism, with a career extending from the independent exhibitions of the 1870s to the large water-lily paintings of his final years. Raised in Normandy, he was introduced to outdoor painting by Eugène Boudin and later studied in Charles Gleyre’s Paris studio. There he met Renoir, Bazille and Sisley. Coastal scenes, suburban gardens and the landscape around Paris formed the early setting for his investigation of light.
Monet’s painting examines how a place changes under different conditions of weather, season and time. Colour describes atmosphere as well as objects: a shadow can be cool or warm, and a wall may dissolve into reflected light. His later series of haystacks, poplars and Rouen Cathedral made that enquiry explicit by returning repeatedly to a single subject. He also worked and revised paintings in the studio, so an impression of spontaneity should not be confused with the absence of deliberation.
After settling at Giverny in 1883, Monet developed the garden and pond that supplied many of his later subjects. Yet travel remained important, including visits to the Mediterranean coast. Gardener’s House at Antibes belongs to that broader engagement with place. Its architecture, vegetation and luminous colour allow us to consider how he balanced a recognisable setting with the sensations of looking. The result asks for attention to the entire painted surface, as well as to the view it represents.