More than any other artist, Claude Monet represents Impressionist painting. This volume illustrates Monet's career from Realism via Impressionism to a form of painting in which the colours and light gradually become detached from the object. Focus is laid on his passionate exploration of the landscape along the Seine, the coasts of France and the motifs of his garden in Giverny. --publisher's description, lower cover.

"This exhibition has been organized with the generous support of the Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris." "539th exhibition of the Albertina Museum"--Colophon.

Foreword /Klaus Albrecht Schrœder, Patrick de Carolis -- Claude Monet (1840-1926): Pioneer and Doyen of Impressionism : Introduction / Heinz Widauer -- From Pleinairism to Impressionism : 1864-1874 / Heinz Widauer -- Argenteuil : The cradle of Impressionism : 1871-1878 / Heinz Widauer -- Veheuil : The turning point : 1878-1881 / Heinz Widauer -- Monet's journeys of the 1880s : "Plunging both hands into the ocean" : 1880-1888 / Gunhild Bauer -- The series from the 1890s and the late work : 1889-1926 / Heinz Widauer -- Giverny : 1883-1926 / Marianne Mathieu -- Monet's abstract textures / Dieter Buchhart -- Biography -- Exhibited works.