Claude Monet: 1840 - 1926 Book

Claude Monet: 1840-1926 is published to coincide with a major exhibition of Monet's works at The Art Institute of Chicago - the largest retrospective of Claude Monet ever held. A lavishly illustrated record of the exhibition, it presents in full color 161 assembled masterpieces, drawn from collections all over the world. Charles F. Stuckey, a leading Monet scholar, presents an extensive month-by-month chronology of the artist, examining his life and work in absorbing detail. In an introductory essay he emphasizes a variety of overlooked issues at the heart of Monet's work: the importance of structure in his art, for example; the significance of the early landscape paintings; and his stature not only as the leading impressionist painter but also as a major twentieth-century artist. Monet is considered here primarily in terms of his own ambitions to be a virtuoso, a revolutionary, and a perfectionist. As this book makes clear, despite his present popularity he is still not credited for many of his most remarkable achievements.

On July 1995, The Art Institute of Chicago will mount the largest retrospective exhibition of the art of Claude Monet to be held in an American museum in more than 40 years. The comprehensive catalog that accompanies this extraordinary exhibition presents in full color 130 of Monet's finest works, drawn from collections all over the world.