《莫奈:捕捉光与色彩的瞬间》作者西尔维·帕坦：“如果有一天我能看见莫奈的花园，我想，我看到的一定是一座色调的花园，不只是鲜花盛开的花园，更是色彩的花园。花的排列并不按照自然的秩序，而在种的时候，就有意把色彩相近的花种在一起好让花儿同时开放，蓝的或粉红的开成一片。这个由画家精心设计的花园，无一不上色。园内有地上的花，有水中的花：画家笔下温柔的睡莲。
这座花园不但是作画的对象，更是艺术，一个在大自然之中完成的作品，由于有画家仔细照料而闪闪发亮。”

Along with Turner, no artist has sought more than Claude Monet (1840–1926) to capture light itself on canvas. Of all the Impressionists, it was the man Cézanne called “only an eye, but my God what an eye!” who stayed completely true to the principle of absolute fidelity to the visual sensation, painting directly from the object. It could be said that Monet reinvented the possibilities of color, and whether it was through his early interest in Japanese prints, his time in the dazzling light of Algeria as a conscript, or his personal acquaintance with the major painters of the late 1800s, what Monet produced throughout his long life would change forever the way we perceive both the natural world and its attendant phenomena. The high point of his explorations were the late series of water lilies, painted in his own garden at Giverny, that, in their moves towards almost total formlessness, are really the origin of abstract art. This biography does full justice to this most remarkable and profoundly influential of artists, and offers numerous reproductions and archive photos alongside a detailed and insightful commentary.