Book excerpt: Claude Monet (1840-1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to 'plein-air' landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, 'soleil levant').This book is the most comprehensive collection of Claude Monet's Paintings ever published, covering the artist's entire 64 years of creation; a keepsake for the connoisseur of fine art. On 484 pages, this book includes a detailed biography, a resume written by Monet himself (in English and French), and over 900 paintings on 460 colour plates (large format 8½ x 11 inches), as well as a special section of Monet's famous Water Lilies Series, and the Series of the London Parliament Buildings and Bridges. Monet's paintings obtain record prices at auctions. 'Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil,' an 1873 painting of a railway bridge spanning the Seine near Paris, was bought for a record $41.4 million at Christie's auction in New York on 6th May 2008. The previous record for Monet's painting stood at $36.5 million. 'Le basin aux nyphéas' (from the water lilies series) sold at Christie's 24 June 2008 for £40,921,250 ($80,451,178) setting a new auction record for the artist.