Monet: Painting Time

Based mainly in France, Monet lived through an era which saw the rise of railways, industrialisation, the modern city, and the adoption of standardised timekeeping — seismic changes that he responded to in his work. Centring on the artist’s relationship with time, this lavishly illustrated monograph explores how he echoed the rapid pace of modern life by capturing the fleeting, instantaneous ‘impressionist’ moment, through works such as Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare (1877). Including celebrated series such as Poplars on the Epte (1891–97), as well as lesser-known works, we see Monet’s attempts, through variations of the same subject, to capture a specific, transient instant in time, as well as his retreat into his beloved garden in Giverny, resulting in the creation of the world-famous Water Lillies cycle.Published to accompany Tate Modern’s first ever exhibition focusing exclusively on the artist, this book reveals Monet’s enduring relationship with time but also with nature, and how, as a subject in perpetual movement, it shifts with the passing years and seasons.