"I want the unobtainable. Other artists paint a bridge, a house, a boat, and that's the end. They are finished. I want to paint the air which surrounds the bridge, the house, the boat, the beauty of the air in which these objects are located, and that is nothing short of impossible." -- the brilliant French impressionist painter Claude Monet, "Monet in the 20th Century," J. House 1998, Yale Press), born this day in 1840.
Monet was a leading figure in the "impressionist" school. Indeed, his painting "Impression, soleil levant," gave name to the style of painting that others would be associated with, like Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissaro.
(photo: "Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge," 1899. Princeton Art Museum)
