Claude Monet (1840-1926) was born in Paris and grew up in Normandy where he was introduced to plein-air painting by landscape painter Eugene Boudin. Throughout his career, Monet sought to capture in his paintings the act of perceiving nature. He was a patient observer of the various changes in color and light throughout the day and by season. Monet joined the Paris studio of  Charles Gleyre in 1859 and became acquainted with Renoir, Alfred Sisley and other young painters, who were also just starting out. During the height of the Impressionist movement, Monet and his family rented a house in the town of Argenteuil on the Seine River near Paris and he and other artists worked outside the official Salon, the exhibition of art organized by the French government. 

In 1883, Monet moved to Giverny in Normandy where he created his famous series of paintings, "Haystacks," "Poplars," "Rouen Cathedral," and "Water Lilies." From the end of the 1890s until his death in 1926, he primarily devoted himself to "Water Lilies," inspired by the water garden at his Giverny estate. He created several works from the "Water Lilies" series specifically for the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, where they have been on display since 1927. The first two large panels in the series were given to the French state as a symbol of peace, the day after the armistice on Nov. 12, 1918. Monet's water lily pond inspired him to create some 300 paintings.