Each term we focus on a different artist.
For Spring Term 2026 the children will be introduced to the life and work of Claude Monet. His distinctive style is very familiar to many people and his techniques and style of painting are very enjoyable for young children.
We always encourage parents to go with their children and see some real Monet paintings at some of the major London galleries that we are very lucky to live near.
Last term, while we were studying Seurat, we were lucky enough to have an afternoon with an art dealer who is an expert on Seurat (and who also happens to be the grandfather of one of our pupils!)
We all loved hearing about the work of Seurat and were gifted some large Seurat prints for our school.
Each class at school has got plenty of examples of Monet prints as well as books and little easels with a Monet print on for our little artists to try copying any time they want to.
Our aim always in our art lessons, where we are studying famous artists, is to introduce a child to a specific artist and to be able to recognise their techniques and understand what influenced them and look at their use of colour.
Claude Monet 1840-1926 was a French painter and founder of Impressionism.
During his long career he was the most consistent and prolific practitioner of Impressionism‘s philosophy of expressing one’s perceptions of nature.
The term ‘Impressionism’ is derived from the title of his painting ‘Impression, sunrise’ which was exhibited in 1874 at the first impressionist exhibition initiated by Monet.
Although his mother supported his ambitions to be a painter, his father disapproved and wanted him to pursue a career in business. He went on to study at the Academie Suisse. Monet was a classmate of Renoir, another impressionist artist.
Monet’s early works include landscapes, seascapes, and portraits.
Monet lived in Giverny in Northern France where he purchased a house and land, and began a vast landscaping project, including a waterlily pond.
Monet‘s ambition to document the French countryside led to a method of painting the same scene many times so as to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons.
In this way, he painted the waterlilies in his garden, which occupied him for the last 20 years of his life.
