"I want to paint the way a bird sings"

                                                                                Sunset    Pourville   1882

                                                                                Marine   Pourville     1881

Monet was so driven to paint that it consumed him, he often begged his relatives, friends and even strangers for money to support his obsession, he was homeless, sick, disillusioned and often misunderstood, but constantly driven to represent the beauty of nature.  When you read his letters you can see that he was never quite satisfied with his ability and was always struggling to do better, and that this struggle is what motivated him. He had such dedication in the pursuit of making art that even as the first world war raged and he could hear the noise of artillery firing he said: "They are going to have to slaughter me here as I paint" He started to go blind, and after operations to remove cataracts from both eyes he continued to paint up until his death in 1926.