Oscar-Claude Monet, a French painter, was a founder and one of the most famous painters of the Impressionist Movement, a precursor to modernist art. Early on, Monet’s family moved to the Normandy coast where the young artist painted ships, caricatures, and the natural splendor under the rapidly changing Norman weather. He did not begin a serious approach to painting until he met Eugene Boudin, who introduced him to painting outdoors (en plein air), an uncommon practice at the time.
Monet’s early works tended to celebrate familial moments and scenes of middle class life. He consistently painted outdoor subjects and undertook a vigorous attempt to convey his ideas about nature. He is known for painting the same subject, or motif, under changing conditions in a series of works that are often exhibited together (e.g. Monet’s Water Lilies or his Rouen Cathedral series). A number of his paintings are fundamental works of early Impressionism.