Claude Monet, 1840-1926 [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Karin Sagner-Duechting (Author) "Oscar Claude Monet, second son of grocer Claude Adolphe Monet and his wife Louise Justine Aubree, was born on 14 November 1840 at 45, Rue..." (more)
Key Phrases: Museum of Fine Arts, Gare Saint-Lazare, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Between the motif and the artist Claude Monet (1840-1926) was both the most typical and the most individual painter of Impressionism. His long life and extraordinary work capacity - coupled with a sometimes furious perfectionism--he dedicated to a pictorial exploration of the sensations which reality, and in particular landscape offer the human eye. But while Monet the painter was faithful and persevering in the pursuit of his motifs, his personal life - characterized by frequent travels and changes of location -- followed a more restless course. Parisian by birth, he discovered plein-air painting as a youth in the provinces and sought to defy his family's insistence upon an academic painter's training. For over half his life the artist was plagued by financial worries, which in part precipitated the frequent moves made by his expanding household. Two of his homes stand out above the rest. The first, Argenteuil, has come to represent the artistic flowering and official establishment of Impressionism as a movement, with Monet as its creative leader. But it was also Monet who, in his endeavour to capture the ever-changing face of reality, went beyond Impressionism and thereby beyond the confines of the self-contained panel painting. This step he took in the village of Giverny: here he painted the Poplars, Grain Stacks and Rouen Cathedral series in which he addressed one motif in constantly new variations. Here, too, Monet laid out the famous garden with its water lily pond which he was to paint on huge canvases well into the 1920s. He thereby sought to render not reality as objectively experienced, but rather that which takes place 'between the motif and the artist'. In their open, nolonger more than tenuously representational structure and impressive scale, his water lily paintings - created long before the currents of the contemporary avant-garde-point the way forward to the developments of the future.

About the Author
Karin Sagner-Duchting, born in Erlabrunn-Steinheldel, studied art history, new German literature and classical archaeology at Munich University. She gained her doctorate in 1983 with a thesis on Claude Monet's water lily paintings (Hildeshelm 1985). Academic assistant at the Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen until 1988.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Taschen (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822831913
• ISBN-13: 978-3822831915
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #844,405 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Be careful. The editorial reviews are for a different book., August 17, 2008

By	Lacewing (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Claude Monet: 1840-1926 (Big Art Series) (Hardcover)

The Editorial reviews for this book are not for the book being sold. They are for a book by Stuckey which has an entirely different ISBN number. Unfortunately, I bought this book based on those reviews. I do not know which book the Customer reviewers were looking at. I suspect the positive reviews are for the Stuckey book and the dismissive review is for the Taschen/Karin Sagner-Duchting book. While I would not be dismissive of this book, it is certainly written only for the general reader and is not the scholarly book described in the editorial reviews. Since that is what I wanted, I am disappointed.

Speaking to the Taschen book. It is fully illustrated, but the reproductions are a little dark and to the brown/orangey side. The text is adequate, but nothing new to anyone who knows Monet. To someone new to the subject it gives an overview of Monet's life and work.

Unfortunately, Amazon does not have an easy way for me to relay this page error to them. I don't want this book, but whose fault is it. I ordered the book that was reviewed. The seller sent the book that was listed.

Amazon's boo-boo.