9 Famous Paintings By Claude Monet

Claude Monet’s paintings are some of the most recognizable and celebrated works in the art world.

As one of the founders of French Impressionist painting, Monet’s artwork captures the beauty and light of everyday life in stunning detail. From his iconic Water Lilies series to his stunning depictions of landscapes and cityscapes, Monet’s paintings continue to captivate and inspire art lovers around the world.

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In this article, we’ll explore the life and legacy of Claude Monet and take a closer look at some of his most famous and beloved paintings.

Who is Claude Monet?

Born in 1840 in Rue Laffitte, Paris, France, Claude Monet’s father expected him to assume the family business – a grocery store. However, the young Monet had other plans, wishing to be an artist instead.

Claude Monet studied at Le Havre Secondary School of the Arts. Soon he made a name for himself as a charcoal caricature artist in the French capital.

Claude Monet is known as one of the most popular French painters and for being a major part of the Impressionism movement, which was developed in the 19th-century France. It is based on the method of painting outdoors and on the spot rather than from sketches in studios. The movement’s main subjects are landscapes and ordinary scenes of everyday life.

Monet is credited with the development of Impressionism, alongside other Paris-based artists from the mid-19th century. In fact, his painting Impression, Sunrise (French: Impression, soleil levant) is the inspiration for the name of the art movement.

READ MORE: 15 Interesting Facts About Claude Monet

Let’s check out some of Claude Monet’s most famous paintings and best artworks that have contributed hugely to the movement that he himself had helped develop.

9 Famous Claude Monet Paintings

1. Impression, Sunrise (1872)

Impression, Sunrise is a painting by Claude Monet that was first showcased at what would be called the “Exhibition of the Impressionists” that took place in April 1874 in Paris.

As mentioned, this painting is said to be the inspiration for the name of the Impressionist movement, which Monet himself had co-pioneered. It is an oil-on-canvas painting that is currently displayed at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris.

Impression, Sunrise was stolen in 1985 by Philippe Jamin and Youssef Khimoun. It was retrieved and returned to the Musée Marmottan Monet in 1990. The following year, it was put back on display there.

The painting depicts the port of Le Havre, Monet’s hometown, located in northwest of France. An interesting trivia about this painting is that although it is where the Impressionist movement took its name, Impression, Sunrise is actually Claude Monet’s least Impressionist piece.

2. Woman with a Parasol (1875)

Woman with a Parasol is a depiction of Madame Camille Monet – Monet’s wife – and their son Jean Monet. This Monet painting is sometimes referred to as The Stroll, or La Promenade in French.

Monet painted Woman with a Parasol in oil on canvas during their years living in Argenteuil, in the suburbs of Paris. It depicts the mother and son’s moment while strolling on a windy summer’s day.

Woman with a Parasol  is not just one of Monet’s most famous and revered masterpieces but of the whole Impressionism movement itself.

If you’d like to see this painting, it is showcased at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, USA.

3. Water Lilies (1897 – 1926)

Called Nymphéas in French, Water Lilies are a series of approximately 250 oil paintings Monet had created from 1987 through 1926. These paintings are hands down the most recognizable of all Monet’s works of all time.

Water Lilies depict the artist’s famous flower garden at his home in Giverny, on the right bank of the Seine some 80 kilometers west of Paris. These art pieces were the main focus of Monet’s production during the last 30 years of his life. He painted many of these paintings while his eyes were inflicted by cataracts.

Canvases of Water Lilies have been catalogued by French art dealer Daniel Wildenstein of Wildenstein & Co. in his Monet: Catalogue Raisonné.

4. The Saint-Lazare Station (1877)

The Saint-Lazare Station or Gare Saint-Lazare is a series of twelve oil paintings Monet painted in 1877. He finished all twelve in the first half of the year.

The Saint-Lazare Station was the painter’s first series of paintings that focused on one sole theme. He exhibited seven of these at the 1877 Third Impressionist Exhibition.

Today, The Saint-Lazare Station paintings are scattered in institutions across the globe. Some of these are displayed at Paris’ Musée Marmottan Monet and Musée d’Orsay, Lower Saxony State Museum (Hanover, Germany), Fogg Art Museum (Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA), Art Institute of Chicago (USA), National Gallery in London, and Pola Museum of Art (Hakone, Japan), as well as other private collections.

5. Rouen Cathedral (1892 – 1893)

Another series that makes it to our list of the most famous Claude Monet paintings is the Rouen Cathedral, which consists of over thirty pieces that Monet created from 1892 to 1893. He remastered all of them in 1894 and exhibited twenty of what he deemed to be the best at his dealer’s gallery in Paris in 1895.

The Rouen Cathedral is in Rouen, Normandy. Monet stayed across the street from the cathedral to paint it. The paintings were highly praised by contemporary painters Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne who came to the exhibition.

Today, Rouen Cathedral paintings are housed in an undisclosed private collection and various museums, including Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen in Rouen and Musée d’Orsay in Paris, as well as London’s National Gallery.

6. La Japonaise (1876)

La Japonaise, which was painted by Monet in 1876, is a portrait depicting a white woman in a red kimono standing on a tatami mat in front of a wall adorned with Japanese fans. The woman was Camille Monet, the artist’s first wife.

The kimono Madame Monet wore in this painting was borrowed by Monet himself from a friend.

First showcased in the second Impressionism exhibition of 1876, critics Émile Zola and Alexandre Pothey praised La Japonaise for its innovation as well as Monet’s bold use of colors.

La Japonaise is currently exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA.

7. Portrait of Poly (1886)

While Monet started out as a caricaturist in the French capital, once an established artist he rarely painted portraits like the Portrait of Poly.

While Monet was in Belle Île, a French island off the coast of Brittany, he met a fisherman called Guillaume Poly, who often came to the inn the artist frequently stayed at. The fisherman’s features and fascinating face caught Monet’s attention.

If you’d like to see this interesting Monet painting, it is displayed at Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris.

8. Bathers at la Grenouillère (1869)

Bathers at la Grenouillère (French: Bain à la Grenouillère) was painted by Monet alongside his good friend and fellow Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in La Grenouillère.

La Grenouillère at the time was a popular spa resort with a floating café and boating facilities. It is just a short trip from Paris, situated on the river Seine, which made it easy for Parisians to visit.

Young painters, Monet and Renoir, went to La Grenouillère together and set up their easels outdoors to paint the resort, capturing it and the people having fun there. The two friends came up with similar-looking paintings of La Grenouillère.

Monet’s La Grenouillère painting can be viewed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City while Renoir’s version is displayed at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden.

9. Wild Poppies Near Argenteuil (1873)

One of the many examples of Monet’s en plein air (outdoor)paintings, Wild Poppies Near Argenteuil depicts the artist’s mastery and love of light and color. It is also one of various paintings he had made while living in Argenteuil – from 1871 to 1877.

The surrounding landscapes inspired Claude Monet. This particular poppy field painting shows a grassy hill that is lined with trees with a red-roofed three-story mansion between them – a great artistic wonder.

Wild Poppies Near Argenteuil is displayed at Musée d’Orsay in Paris.