Claude Monet
(1840-1926)  FRANCE
             Painting of the Week - Japanese Footbridge

MONDAY

​Claude Monet was a French painter who lived in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  

​Claude Monet’s paintings are much loved now, but they weren’t when he first painted them.  

Woman With a Parasol by Monet

Clifftop Walk at Pourville by Monet

​People complained they only looked like an “impression” of a scene instead of being complete and detailed.   This gave Monet and his friends the name Impressionists.  Monet became known as the founder of the Impressionists, a group of artists who loved to paint scenes full of light and color.

Japanese Footbridge by Monet

Japanese Footbridge is the painting of the week.

TUESDAY

Monet dedicated himself to capturing the effect of light on scenes.  He was particularly interested in how light affected the colors of objects and how colors appeared when placed side-by-side.  

Haystacks by Monet

He completed many series, such as Haystacks and the Rouen Cathedral, in order to study how the colors of light changed throughout a day.  ​

Rouen Cathedral by Monet

While in London, Monet painted a series of the Houses of Parliament, or Westminster Palace.  Several of these were painted from the scene through his window at different times.

WEDNESDAY

Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil by Renoir

For much of his career, Monet was dedicated to painting entirely from nature.  This was unusual for his day, because most artists painted in their studios, working from sketches or models. ​

Monet believed the best way to capture the look and color of natural light was to be outside. ​

Le Parc Monseau by Monet

"En plein air" is French for "in open air", and it is a term that refers to painting outside. ​

This painting by John Singer Sargent shows Monet engaged in plein air painting.

THURSDAY

Monet's home at Giverny

From 1883, Monet lived in Giverny, which is just outside Paris.  He purchased a house and property there that he landscaped with flower gardens and a lily pond.

Monet painted these paintings from his Giverny garden.

A book in our library tells the fictional story of a little girl named Linnea who visits the home and garden of Claude Monet at Giverny, France.  Linnea learns about the artist's paintings and his life. ​

Water Lilies by Monet

Monet completed many paiintings of the Japanese bridge that crossed the pond and over 250 oils of the lilies.

FRIDAY

One of the oval galleries of Monet's murals in the Musee de l'Orangerie

The Musee de l'Orangerie is a museum in Paris that features eight water lilies murals by Monet and other Impressionist paintings.  The murals are displayed in specially designed oval rooms. ​

Four paintings in one gallery represent sunrise and the four in the other room depict dusk.

Monet gave the Water Lilies paintings to the government of France after the signing of the armistice on Nov. 11, 1918.

Monet painted the murals during the last thirty years of his life, even though some of that time his vision was impaired by cataracts. ​

Video explaining Monet's art (upper elem.)


Kinderart Monet & ImpressionismScholastic Instructor - Monet in Science Class?

Integrating Monet into other subjects

Lesson plans for Monet's garden

Art and science lesson for Monet's lily pads

Art activitiy -Tissue paper water lilies - Monet

Art activity - lily pads

Website - lessons and sites for study of Monet

Website - Impressionism (loaded with help for teaching about 
Impressionist art like Monet's 

Arkansas Visual Art Frameworks:

VA.5.3.5  Experiment with color mixing