The first comprehensive examination of the painter’s formative years, tracing the evolution of Monet’s early style and personal ambitions that drove the rest of his career

This elegant volume is the first to be devoted to the young genius of Claude Monet (1840–1926). Bringing together the greatest paintings from his early career—including his first Salon-exhibited work, the Kimbell Art Museum’s La Pointe de la Hève at Low Tide; Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) and The Magpie from the Musée d’Orsay; and The Green Wave and La Grenouillère from the Metropolitan Museum of Art—it features essays by distinguished scholars, focusing on the evolution of Monet’s own distinctive mode of painting. Through the 1860s, the young painter absorbed and transformed a variety of influences, from the lessons of the Barbizon school and his mentor Boudin to the challenges posed by his friends Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Sisley. Artistic innovation and personal ambition shaped the work of the celebrated impressionist painter from the very start of his long and illustrious career.

George T. M. Shackelford is deputy director of the Kimbell Art Museum. Richard Shiff is Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art at the University of Texas at Austin. Richard Thomson is Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art, University of Edinburgh. Anthea Callen is professor emeritus of the Australian National University and professor emeritus of visual culture, University of Nottingham. Mary Dailey Desmarais is associate curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal.