Claude Monet: 1840-1926 is published to coincide with a major exhibition of Monet's works at The Art Institute of Chicago - the largest retrospective of Claude Monet ever held. A lavishly illustrated record of the exhibition, it presents in full color 161 assembled masterpieces, drawn from collections all over the world.

Charles F. Stuckey, a leading Monet scholar, presents an extensive month-by-month chronology of the artist, examining his life and work in absorbing detail. In an introductory essay he emphasizes a variety of overlooked issues at the heart of Monet's work: the importance of structure in his art, for example; the significance of the early landscape paintings; and his stature not only as the leading impressionist painter but also as a major twentieth-century artist.

Monet is considered here primarily in terms of his own ambitions to be a virtuoso, a revolutionary, and a perfectionist. As this book makes clear, despite his present popularity he is still not credited for many of his most remarkable achievements.