Published in conjunction with the exhibition: "Monet in Normandy," [held]: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Jun. 17-Sep. 17, 2006; North Carolina Museum of Art, Oct. 15, 2006-Jan. 14, 2007; the Cleveland Museum of Art, Feb. 18-May 20, 2007.

This study presents an interpretation of Monet's seascapes of the Normandy coast, arguing that Monet's modernity lay in his production of neo-romantic myths. The author interweaves the history of the sea resorts, analysis and details of Monet's life, and reflections on the marketing of his work.

One understudied aspect of the life and works of Oscar-Claude Monet (1840-1926) is the artist's engagement with the town of Étretat on the Normandy coast of France during the mid-1880s. Monet traveled there twice for extended painting sojourns and eventually created over eighty works, more than he painted of any other site away from his home. Through these visits, Monet witnessed Étretat's shift from a quiet fishing village in a dramatic natural setting to a tourist destination. In this focused study, Chiyo Ishikawa places Monet's Étretat works within the context of his artistic ambition and frustration at a key moment in his life and career. She also explores the changing relationship between society and landscape in late nineteenth-century France. The book features sixteen paintings by Monet and his contemporaries Gustave Courbet, Camille Corot, and Eugène Boudin, supplemented by photographs and ephemeral material to bring to life Monet's experience in the region. The biographical context, in addition to the immersive visual experience, offers a vivid account of this significant aspect of Monet's artistic progression.

A vividly rendered portrait of both the rise of Impressionism and of Monet, the artist at the center of the movement. It is, above all, a love story of the highest romantic order.

Take a culinary journey in Monet’s footsteps with this book featuring recipes and photographs from his bucolic Normandy home—forward by Meryl Streep. Monet's Palate Cookbook brings to life Claude Monet's beloved kitchen garden at his exquisite home in Giverny, France. With sixty recipes drawn from Giverny’s farm-to-table tradition and the artist’s own cooking journals, the book explores Monet’s passion for gardening and includes detailed information about the herbs and vegetables he grew. On his two-acre vegetable garden, Monet grew zucchini, cherry tomatoes, radishes, pearl onions, brussels sprouts, asparagus, rosemary and mint. A few of the recipes are of French origin, such as the famous Normandy apple tart. Others are from locations abroad where he traveled, such as the Savoy Hotel in London where Monet acquired their recipe for Yorkshire pudding. Capturing Monet's lifestyle, Monet’s Palate Cookbook includes beautiful photographs by Steven Rothfeld, descriptions of the house interiors and gardens, French entertaining tips, and more.

This beautiful slipcased volume offers an intimate tour inside Monet’s home and through the idyllic Giverny garden that inspired his most iconic paintings. Monet first spotted the village of Giverny from the window of a train and then relocated to the rural haven outside Paris in 1883. Monet was an artist with a passion for painting landscapes and outdoor scenes, and the garden at Giverny soon became the Impressionist master’s greatest artistic accomplishment and a catalyst for his work. In 1890, Monet began renovating it, installing a picturesque water lily pond inspired by the Japanese prints he avidly collected. The setting of Monet’s Water Lilies series—his most famous works—it is now the most visited garden of its size in the Western world. The beautifully vivid illustrations of Monet’s paintings, his home, and the grounds give readers unprecedented access into the flowery paradise to which Monet dedicated the last forty years of his life. Lovers of garden design and Impressionist art are invited on an intimate tour via this handsome volume.

As well as his fellow Impressionists -- in particular Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas and Cezanne --

Presents the paintings Monet executed on the Italian and French Rivieras in 1884 and 1888

Spanning the artist's entire career, this book explores Claude Monet's enduring relationship with nature and the landscapes he returned to again and again. Capturing fleeting natural impressions played a central role in the art of Claude Monet. He deeply engaged with the landscape and light of different places, from the metropolis of Paris to the Seine villages of Argenteuil and Giverny. This lavishly illustrated volume explores the development of Monet's art from the 1850s to the 1920s, focusing on the places, both at home and on his frequent travels, from which he drew inspiration for his painting. In addition, the book traces the critical shift in Monet's art that occurred when he began to focus on series of the same subjects such as haystacks, poplars, and the water lilies and pond at his meticulously designed garden in Giverny. Insightful and revealing, the book deepens our appreciation of Monet's art and allows us to experience anew his gift for bringing the natural world to life.

This volume on the life and work of Claude Monet is quite unlike any other book on this popular artist, as for the first time his letters have been brought together with his paintings, pastels and drawings. There are letters to his fellow artists and youthful friends, long affectionate letters to family and loved ones and begging letters in times of hardship. We read of Monet's persistence in money matters, his frustrations and successes while on painting expeditions to Italy, Brittany and Norway, and his experience of solitude, illness and bereavement in later life. Monet emerges from the correspondence as a more troubled and complex individual than his sun-filled canvases might suggest. Alongside the artist's letters are more than 200 superb colour reproductions. These accompany the text and enable the reader to follow the young artist through his first encounters with the Parisian art scene, his days as a commanding presence in the Impressionist movement and the final chapter of his life when he produced some of his most ambitious and colourful work at Giverny.