Claude Monet, a 19th
-century French painter, was the most famous artist associated with the
movement known as Impressionism. Monet was born on November 14, 1840, and even as a young man
he was known for producing small portraits in charcoal. In 1858 Monet met the artist Eugène Boudin, who
became his mentor and introduced Monet to painting outdoors, or “en plein air” as it came to be known. In
1859, at the age of 19, Monet moved to Paris to become a professional artist. Most artists of his time tried
to imitate nature realistically, but in his landscape painting Monet instead sought to portray nature as it
appeared to him. In particular, he was interested in how light affects the ways that we perceive color. In
one of his most famous series of works, Monet painted the cathedral in Rouen, France at several different
times of day, showing how changes in natural light make the cathedral appear to change color. In 1883,
Monet moved to a small French town called Giverny, where he built an elaborate garden. This garden, in
particular its water lily ponds, became the chief subject of Monet’s later paintings. Monet’s paintings of
water lilies were extremely influential to 20th
-century modern artists. In these paintings, Monet used the
landscape merely as a starting point, creating abstract fields of vibrant color. These paintings relied on
broad, thick brushstrokes. The texture of these brushstrokes gave the canvases a tactile quality that
contrasted sharply with the smooth canvases produced by more traditional artists. Though he struggled
financially throughout his life, when Monet died in 1926, he was one of the most famous and influential
painters in the world.
1561. This passage would most likely be found in
1562. Based on information in the passage, it can be inferred that the phrase “a tactile quality” suggests that
Monet’s canvases were
1563. According to the passage, Monet moved to Paris in 1859 to
1564. The tone of the passage can best be described as