Monet Abroad. Paintings and Letters 1863-1917

Travel alongside Claude Monet to twenty destinations where he created his most famous work-including Venice, Rouen, Étretat, Antibes, and London-all of which nourished his mastery of light.

A major figure of impressionism, known primarily for his paintings of water lilies, Claude Monet was also a frequent, but discreet traveler. For more than fifty years, he made his way through Europe, looking for remarkable scenes, reflections, nuances, and transparencies of light to capture through his painting-­the result of patient, obsessive observation.

From Normandy to Venice, via London, Brittany, the Mediterranean, and the banks of the Seine, his travels were far more than mere journeys: they were an incessant quest for visual sensations. Art historian Florence Gentner retraces his artistic and personal voyages, showing how twenty destinations profoundly influenced some 250 of his major works, as well as the evolution of his color palette.

Extracts from more than one hundred letters, numerous sketches, notebook excerpts, and high-­definition reproductions reveal the circumstances of his journeys and convey the painter’s state of mind while he was away from home. His travel paintings constitute an exceptional body of work, enriched by an insightful analysis from Marine Kisiel, a heritage curator.

Part artistic biography, part travelogue, Monet Abroad reveals the modernity and insatiable curiosity of a painter constantly in search of new horizons and new subjects.