Other influences and groups presented themselves, and gradually each of the painters drifted away to pursue their own styles. In 1892 Monet married Alice Hoschede, and at last gained a name for himself. He knew several important people and Monet became financially secure for the first time in his life. With this luxury, Monet devoted himself to gardening, which served as the theme for his last series of paintings. In his final years he was troubled by failing eyesight, but he continued to paint until his death in 1926 ("Monet," Encarta).
Changing the History of the Arts/Modern Elements of Impressionism.
Impressionist painters were considered radical in their time because they broke many of the rules of picture making set by earlier generations. Impressionism was born out of realism, a movement which had already shocked the critics and public with it's subjects and techniques. The group found many of their themes in life rather than in history, which was the accepted source of subject matter of the time. Instead of painting an ideal of beauty that earlier artists had defined, the impressionists tried to depict what they saw at a given moment, a vision that was hard for some to accept as beautiful. Monet specialized in landscape and informal portraits in natural settings. These were genres that had been regarded as of lesser importance than history painting.
Monet's paintings also broke the traditional rules of composition. Rather than attempting to produce carefully constructed, permanent records of events or scenes, his objective was to capture the moment, a sensation produced by chance. He sought to produce the effects of weather, light, and movement, which often made his subjects appear fragmented with limited depth. This went against the traditional representation of space where the eye is led naturally from the foreground to the distance.
Monet also rejected the dark tones and detailed finish that removed the painterly quality of the artist's work.
