"Claude Monet" is the archetypal Impressionist painter. His devotion to the impressionist ideal of capturing the natural fugitive fall of light remained unwavering throughout his long career, and resulted in exquisitely luminous paintings which remain enduringly popular. During almost seven decades of uninterrupted creativity, Monet produced one of the largest oeuvres of any artist. When he began painting, around 1858, Delacroix and Ingres still dominated the French artistic scene. By the time of his death, in 1926, Cubism was going out of fashion.