Claude Monet: The Magician of Colour (Adventures in Art)

Provides information about the life and work of French Impressionist artist Claude Monet, discussing his family and friends, as well as his career as a painter which he continued until his death in 1926 at the age of eighty-six. Learning about the life and work of the famous French painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) doesn't have to start with reading an art history book. This CD-ROM lets you explore the best-known paintings of the great Impressionist master from an endless variety of angles, a playful, interactive approach that fits well with Monet's groundbreaking explorations of light and color.

Striving to teach children how to look at art, the oversize Adventures in Art series begins with three titles of exceptional range. In The Duke and the Peasant: Life in the Middle Ages, Sister Wendy Beckett discusses the calendar pictures of the TrFs Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry, comparing the lot of the wealthy duke with that of the hardworking peasants. Most adventurous in format, The Blue Rider: The Yellow Cow Sees the World in Blue by Doris Kutschbach follows Wassily Kandinsky and the German expressionists: typefaces of different colors and sizes describe the works and relate the stories behind them. Keith Haring: I Wish I Didn't Have to Sleep! by DTsirTe la Valette combines a very brief, informal biography of the artist with children's reactions to 11 of his energetic pictures, prompting the reader's participation with questions like "What do you think happened?" and "How does this make you feel?" And perhaps most traditional in approach, the engagingly written Monet: The Magician of Colour by Stephen Koja and Katja Miksovsky provides a biographical context for viewing the paintings.

The name Claude Monet is synonymous with images full of dappled sunlight and paintings that evoke the cheerful lightness of things. Monet was rigorously opposed to the academic tradition prevalent in France, preferring to capture fleeting impressions in a spontaneous style of plein-air painting which shows light in all its manifestations. This monograph includes paintings from all periods of the artist's life showing his early works painted in the forest at Fontainebleau as well as landscapes of his mature period with their bold brushwork, right up to his almost abstract later work. The paintings are divided into themes, journeys and scenes, highlighting the many facets of his oeuvre. Images of the Thames and of Rouen cathedral are included, as well as examples from the famous poppy field, haystack, and waterlilly series. Most of the paintings shown in more than 110 full-colour plates are the famous Monet scenes from Paris collections. However, these are supplemented by many rarely seen works from collections in Europe, America and Japan as well as three that have never been published before. . The book contains an introductory essay by Stephan Koja and commentaries on all the plates arranged in thematic groups. Copiously illustrated biographical notes on the artist and extracts from his letters complete this volume.