A collection of 420 letters from Monet tells the story of his life and the Water Lilies

• 420letters approximately, addressed to 93 recipients
• 552pages in the bound volume
• 22panels for eight compositions of the Water Lilies

Claude Monet: A Life in Letters, a collection of the painter's letters, has just been published by Thames & Hudson. This 552-page bound volume, priced at £30, brings together approximately 420 letters by Claude Monet (1840-1926), written from age 18 until his death at 86. The Art Newspaper reviewed it on 8 October 2026.

Five contributors worked on the book, including Teresa Krasny and Sylvie Patry. The editors selected from more than 3,200 letters transcribed in Daniel Wildenstein's catalogue raisonné (1974-91), to which 393 previously unrecorded letters are added. The most frequent recipients are his principal dealer Paul Durand-Ruel and his second wife Alice Hoschedé.

painting:painting-inspired-by-apple-blossoms-by-camille-pissarro-n-2-celebrated-artist-tribute|Apple Blossoms|Inspired by Camille Pissarro

Monet's biography is divided into six dated periods, each forming a section of the book, including Years of Struggle (1873-81) and War and Water Lilies (1915-26). It also contains letters to other artists, including Auguste Rodin and Camille Pissarro.

"It is his voice, he is telling the story, and we wanted to let his voice resonate, true and authentic."

Teresa Krasny, contributor to the book (remarks translated from English)

According to Teresa Krasny, these letters were known to researchers, art historians and auction house specialists, but not to the general public.

Manet, from Friendship to the Campaign for Olympia

painting:painting-inspired-by-saint-lazare-station-by-claude-monet-n-1-celebrated-artist-tribute|Saint-Lazare Station|Inspired by Claude Monet|left

On 9 December 1880, Monet wrote to the art critic Théodore Duret, apologizing for being too lazy to write. He had seen Manet, in good health, busy with a painting meant to cause a sensation at the Salon, the official exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The painting depicts the escape by boat, out on the open sea, of Rochefort, a journalist arrested and then deported in 1873 to New Caledonia.

A key section recounts Monet's campaign to raise 20,000 francs so that the French State could acquire Manet's Olympia (1863) from his widow Suzanne. The work was hung at the Louvre in 1907. In a letter to the Minister of Public Instruction Armand Fallières, Monet describes the hostilities as having subsided and declares himself convinced of the importance of the work.

The Water Lilies and the State

painting:painting-inspired-by-water-lilies-by-claude-monet-n-1-celebrated-artist-tribute|Water Lilies|Inspired by Claude Monet

On 12 November 1918, the day after the Armistice, Monet proposed to his friend Georges Clemenceau, President of the Council, that he give the nation two works from the Grandes Décorations, the Water Lilies series, in honour of victory and peace. The Hôtel Biron, future Musée Rodin, and then the Jeu de Paume were considered. Agreement was reached on the Orangerie, according to Sylvie Patry.

On 31 October 1921, Monet wrote to Clemenceau that he refused the gallery proposed at the Jeu de Paume. He would accept the Orangerie only if the Fine Arts administration carried out the works he deemed essential. According to Teresa Krasny, the government had not provided a space designed around the requirement of a curved wall, and Monet won his point.

The plan was formalized in April 1922, and Monet painted until his death in 1926. The cycle given to France comprises eight large-format compositions spread over 22 panels, presented at the Orangerie in 1927 according to Monet's plan. They remain there to this day.

The letters show, according to Teresa Krasny, emotional crises followed by a return to work. On 22 February 1886, after Alice Hoschedé proposed a separation, he wrote that the painter within him was dead. During his last year, he spoke of his joy in painting and asked only to live a hundred years.

Our take

These letters remind us that a famous painting is also born of doubts, friendships and stubbornness. At home, a canvas takes on another presence when we know that behind it stood someone who hesitated, then began again.

Source: The Art Newspaper.

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