Claude Monet

Oscar-Claude Monet (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and the pioneer of impressionist painting. His attempts to represent nature as he saw it is regarded as a significant predecessor to modernism. He was the most consistent and prolific practitioner of impressionism's theory of expressing one's views before nature, especially as applied to plein air (outside) landscape painting, during the span of his lengthy career.

The word "Impressionism" comes from the title of his painting Impression, Soleil levant, which was shown at an 1874 "exhibition of rejects" organized by Monet and his companions as a substitute for the Salon. In fact, his work Impression, Sunrise is regarded as beginning the whole art style, and his water lily series, with over 250 versions, is a part of his enduring legacy.