Monet, born in Paris in 1840, was the key figure of Impressionism, and in fact, the movement was named after one of his paintings, Impression: Sunrise. A prolific painter, Monet was also known for his 'series paintings', where he would make multiple paintings of the same subject (often a landscape) at different times of the day or year. One series of 14 winter paintings at the Creuse river was disrupted when a tree that was a major focus of the paintings started to bloom in the spring. Monet wanted the series to be set exclusively in the winter, so he had the tree stripped bare so he could finish the series.

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