Monet was the longest lived of the Impressionists and the most relentlessly productive. His work defines the central tenets of Impressionism - painting with unmixed colours, excluding black from the palette, and attempting to seize the instantaneous effects of nature - and pushes them further than any other artist has done. This book follows Monet's career from his work as a young painter exploring the traditions of landscape painting through to his final mangnificent canvases of water-lilies that herald the modern movement.