The definitive Monet biography by Daniel Wildenstein,a leading authority on Impressionist painting and author of the catalogue of" Monet's works, is lavishly illustrated with 572 reproductions and complementary photographic documents. A visual representation of an extraordinary artistic career, that simultaneously brings to life the spirit of a whole era.

Origins and Birth

The Move to Le Havre

The Schoolboy

Ochard's Student - Early Efforts

His Mother's Death

Caricatures

Meeting Boudin

Grant Applications

Paris

Thomas Couture

The Academie Suisse

From Delacroix to Daubigny

The Brasserie des Martyrs

The Impasse

Conscription

Algeria

The Meeting with Jongkind

Exoneration

Toulmouche

Charles Gleyre and his Academy

Life in the Studio

Chailly-en-Biere

The Demise of the Academy

Honfleur

The Rue de Furstenberg and the First Salon

The Luncheon on the Grass

Camille

Women in the Garden

The Birth of Jean

A Return to his Roots

A Low Point

Madame Gaudibert

Dream and Awakening

La Grenouillere

Marriage

Trouville and the War

London

Zaandam

Rue de l'Isly

Early Days in Argenteuil and the Trip to Rouen

Fhe Port of Argenteuil

income

Fhe Doncieux Inheritance

Fomorrow's Men

mpression

Making the Best of Hard Times

Great Encounters

The Hotel Drouot

Misfortune in the Rue Le Peletier

Ernest Hoschede

From Parc Monceau to the Chateau de Rottembourg

The Gate Saint-Lazare

Leaving Argenteuil

L'Ile de la Grande Jatte

The'Exposition Universelle

The Last Hoschede Sale

Vetheuil: Another New Start

Settling In

As Quick to Hope as to Despair

The Baritone Scapegoat

The Death of Camille

Merciless People, Merciless Winter

Poverty and Hope

Icebreak and Renewal

The Gaulois Affair

"I am working furiously"

Lavacourt at the Salon

La Vie Moderne

Flourishing

The Return of Durand-Ruel

Conflicts

Leaving Vetheuil

Poissy and the Collapse of the Union Generale Bank

At "La Renommee des Galettes"

From the Reichshoffen Panorama to the Pourville

Seascapes

"Will you like what I am bringing back?"

From Euphoria to Despair

Provisional Reckonings and a Further Trip

The Hotel Blanquet at Etretat

"The Fiasco of My Exhibition"

Somewhere Permanent to Live

Giverny

Bordighera

Monsieur Moreno, "A Veritable Marquis de Carabas"

Bordighera to Menton

New Difficulties

Octave Mirbeau

From the Lathuille Banquet to the International

Exhibition

The Life of a Landscape Artist

The Manneporte

"Yesterday's Monet is Dead"

Zola's L'CEuvre

Young Woman with a Parasol

Belle-Ile, Russell and Poly

"Once I get started, nothing stops me"

Gustave Geffroy

The Chateau de la Pinede

The Whole Gang

Theo van Gogh's Mezzanine and the Giverny Studio

Anecdote versus Fact

The First Grainstacks

Chez Maurice Rollinat

"If Flaubert had been a Painter"

"For ever Monet! For ever Rodin!"

Homage to the Memory of Edouard Manet

Monet as a Teacher

Antonin Proust under Fire

Gustave Larroumet Besieged

"Don't make a martyr of yourself by desiring the

impossible"

Such a Beautiful Landscape

Variations on a Theme: the Grainstacks

Requiem for a Man of Letters

From the Grainstacks to the Poplars

The Blue, Pink or Yellow Cathedral

The Marriages

The H6tel de Ville Affair

A Pond to Make, A Cathedral to Paint

The New World, The Old World

Legacies, Sales and Added Value

Camondo, Signac and Cezanne

Sandviken near Christiania

As if in Japan

"Cathedral Revolution"

Monet and the Environment

Returns and Repetitions

"So all of them are Manets, all Monets, all Pissarros"

The Henri Vever Sale

Leon Gerome

Maurice Guillemot, an Inspired Reporter

Zola's Admirable Courage

Boredom or New Start

"The Paganini of the Rainbow"

"So much pain and heartache"

A "Complete and Unanimous" Success

Apotheosis or Decline?

The First Series of Japanese Bridges

The First London Bridge Pictures

The Dawn of the 2oth Century

"I am a Complete Imbecile"

London Society

The Centennial Exhibition

The Water-Lily Pond

"This is not a country where you can finish

a picture"

The Meadow

Farewell to Vetheuil

Towards a Subjective Impressionism

"Study and research, which will prove fruitful"

Enthusiasm to Order or Spontaneous Admiration?

"Gardening and painting apart, I'm no good at

anything"

London: The Entente Cordiale

Louis Vauxcelles at Giverny

A Pond of Light

Delicate Comparisons and a Well-orchestrated

Campaign

Social Progress?

An Autumn in Venice

The Water-Lilies Exhibition in 1909

From Decoration to Abstraction

The Flood of 1910

The Death of Alice

"I am completely fed up with painting..."

Onset of the Cataract

"I feel I am undertaking something very important'

A Studio Constructed in the Midst of War

The Grand Decorations Before All Else

A Triumph in Two Panels

The Law of Silence

The Donation Made Public

From the H6tel Biron to the Orangerie

The Donation is Formalised

Preparing for the Cataract Operation

An Operation in Three Stages

The Patience of Dr Coutela

The "Patriarch of Art"

"As if he had all eternity before him"

From Charles Coutela to Jacques Mawas

The Donation Under Threat

The Swan Song

"Nothing to be done"

"Monet... may still get back in the saddle"

"A disease which cannot be cured"

The Last Remission

A Gentle Death

The Funeral

Epilogue

Index of Proper Names

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements