Why are Monet's paintings so good?

It's really a matter of taste! The Impressionists paintings are so well known that our eyes find nothing shocking at their sight. read more

First of all, let me state that I used to have a very low opinion of Monet’s paintings. I felt that rather than just trying to make a beautiful painting he had an ideological ax to grind and his works were illustrations of a theory (like Seurat’s pointillism) rather than a sincere expression of his aesthetics. read more

Claude Monet, 'Water-Lilies' © The National Gallery, London. Unfurled at more than four metres in length, it has been said the canvas shape nods to the soldiers mown down across the Western Front; that Monet’s destruction of form reflected the destruction of young men in “that terrible, horrendous war”, as he called it. read more