Illustrated record of the Chicago Art Institute's 1995 exhibition of the artist's work, with highlights of his life and examples of his paintings from every period of his career.

Among all of Monet's creations, the paintings of the water lilies in his garden at Giverny are most famous. Monet himself intended them to provide "an asylum of peaceful meditation." Yet, as King reveals, these beautiful canvases belie the intense frustration Monet experienced at the difficulties of capturing the fugitive effects of light, water, and color. They also reflect the terrible personal torments Monet suffered in the last dozen years of...

Claude Monet was a true magician of light and of colour. Yet it is not only his painting that fascinates us, but also the interesting life he led with his family and many friends. This book tells the tale of an unusual artist and his wonderful pictures.