Claude Monet was one of the most successful artists of his day, despite the size of his beard. He liked to spend all day painting in his garden, and had a particular fondness for painting the water lilies in his pond. Nobody knows why. Notwithstanding the water lilies and the beard, Monet is regarded as the first of the impressionists; the very name of the movement is taken from his early painting 'Impression: Sunrise'. As impressionists go, Monet wasn't a particularly good one; his Cagney was awful and his James Stewart hardly any better. Nevertheless, his paintings weren't too bad, on the whole, and he managed to scrape a living.

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1. Small Boy by a River

This beautiful painting captures wonderfully the freshness of the fields and flowers, and the flawless azure skies of southern France. Thought to have been painted near the village of Araignée-dans-le-Bain, where Monet often spent his summers. Astonishingly, the small boy in the painting grew up to be Jacques Cousteau!

2. Small Wooden Bridge with People On It

The scene here has been positively identified as the bridge at Aix-en-Pains, in Provence. Three people stand on the bridge, looking down at the water as it cascades over the weir beneath. We can almost hear the water, such is the atmosphere evoked. Personally, I can never view this picture without wanting to go to the toilet.

3. Another Small Boy by Another River

In spite of the title, this is almost certainly the same river, though the boy is not Jacques Cousteau. He is, in fact, a young boy from Araignée-dans-le-Bain by the name of Maurice Chevalier.

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