Global Reach and Cultural Impact

Monet's influence spread far beyond France, fundamentally altering artistic traditions worldwide. In Japan, despite the irony of a Western artist being influenced by Japanese prints only to influence Japanese artists in turn, Monet's work resonated deeply. The Tokyo National Museum's 1982 Monet exhibition drew over 500,000 visitors, demonstrating an affinity that transcends cultural boundaries.

American art was profoundly transformed by Monet's example. The American Impressionists who gathered at Giverny—Willard Metcalf, Theodore Robinson, John Singer Sargent—brought his techniques back to the United States, adapting them to American light and landscape. Later, American Abstract Expressionists found in Monet's late works validation for their own push toward pure painterly expression.

In Russia, despite political upheavals, Monet's influence persisted. The great collections assembled by Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov before the Revolution ensured that Russian artists had access to major Impressionist works. Artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich acknowledged Monet's role in their development toward abstraction.