Monet: The Triumph of Impressionism

by Daniel Wildenstein

No other artist, apart from J. M. W. Turner, tried as hard as Claude Monet (1840–1926) to capture light itself on canvas. Of all the Impressionists, it was the man Cézanne called “only an eye, but my God what an eye!” who stayed true to the principle of absolute fidelity to the visual sensation, painting directly from the object. It could be said that Monet reinvented the possibilities of color. Whether it was through his early interest in Japanese prints, his time as a conscript in the dazzling light of Algeria, or his personal acquaintance with the major painters of the late 19th century, the work Monet produced throughout his long life would change forever the way we perceive both the natural world and its attendant phenomena. The high point of his explorations was the late series of water lilies, painted in his own garden at Giverny, which, in their approach towards almost total formlessness, are really the origin of abstract art. This biography does full justice to this most remarkable and profoundly influential artist, and offers numerous reproductions and archive photos alongside a detailed and insightful commentary.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Art History, Coffee Table Books

586 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 2022

About the author

Daniel Leopold Wildenstein (11 September 1917 – 23 October 2001) was a French art dealer, historian and owner-breeder of thoroughbred race horses.

He was a member of the Wildenstein family, owners of one of the most successful and influential art-dealerships of the 20th century.

Reviews

[GABRIELLE]

I have a real life crush on Claude Monet. I love the way this guy saw the world and captured it for generations to see. Time machines may not exist to take us back centuries ago and experience what life was like at certain places, but I feel like paintings are a step in that direction. His paintings transport me!! Sorry!!! It was so cool to see the side by side shots of real photos of the locations he painted at vs the art he made of them. No picture could ever compete

[Hieu Minh]

It was a long but such a rewarding read! I think it took me so long because of all the different French names that I tried to pronounce along the way, but there was a lot of information as well. I truly think this book will still be valuable to me even after I'm done with it because there are pictures and locations of most of the paintings which makes it great for bookmarking the ones I've already seen/want to see. What makes this book a 4/5 is it provides such a detailed account of Monet's life through correspondences between Monet and his circle such as his second wife, art dealers, and friends. However, I know the letters would be in French but it would have been cool to just see the letters that were used. Overall, this book really made me understand how dedicated Monet was to the arts and how meticulous he was with each painting.

[Matthew Liu]

Honestly did not know this guy curated his whole garden for his art. Water Lillie’s nice couple of times but gets a bit boring but pretty stoic vibes. Actually went to the national gallery to see first hand but yh got kinda bored ngl. Spent more time elsewhere. His work on the London fog + his dealing with light is v impressive tho.

[Glen]

A high quality book with the images showing very well on the heavy, glossy pages. The writing is good. Monet story wasn’t nearly as interesting as the Van Gogh story. But the actual art in this was page after page stunning.

[Susu]

Detaillierter Biographie, Entwicklung des Œuvre und der Rezeption - die perfekte Werkschau zum Blättern - 1000mal informativer als der immersive Ausstellungszauber "Monets Garten"

[Aaron Hart]

such an in depth biography with a lot of fascinating stories and anecdotes about this dude’s life. helped me understand his paintings and the way he thought about art so much

[☆ jodie]

bought a copy when i went to the met back in august… <3 monet is my favourite painter im always just in awe