MONET

The Art Book of the Year The TimesA Telegraph Sunday Times Financial Times Economist Tablet and Evening Standard Book of the YearA magnificent new biography of the founder of ImpressionismIn the course of a long and exceptionally creative life Claude Monet revolutionized painting and made some of the most iconic images in western art Misunderstood and mocked at the beginning of his career he risked everything to pursue his original vision Although close to starvation when he invented impressionism on the banks of the Seine in the 1860s 70s in the following decades he emerged as the powerful leader of the new painting in Paris at one of its most exciting cultural moments His symphonic series Haystacks Poplars and Rouen Cathedral brought wealth and renown Then he withdrew to paint only the pond in his garden The late Water Lilies ignored during his lifetime are now celebrated as pioneers of twentieth century modernism Behind this great and famous artist is a volatile voracious nervous yet reckless man largely unknown Jackie Wullschläger s enthralling biography based on thousands of never before translated letters and unpublished sources is the first account of Monet s turbulent private life and how it determined his expressive sensuous sensation