\b0 Born in Paris in 1940, the painter Claude Monet developed a passion for the ephemeral effects of vis
ual impressions modeled by light. But his pictures, like those of his \i impressionist\i0 friends (the term was invented by a disapproving journalist following the exhibition of 1874 where Monet put on show his \i Impressions, Rising Sun\i0 ), proved ha
rd to sell. Success did not come until the closing decade of the century when the public, collectors, and museum curators at last began to grasp the amazing revolution in painting that had taken place right before their eyes. Monet then moved to \b \ATXul1024 \cf4 \ATXht130 Giverny\b0 \ATXul0 \cf0 \ATXht0 (where he died in 1926) and continued to work, producing the immortal series of large pictures on the theme of \i Water Lilies\i0 .\par
