Monet’s water lilies, which he painted with failing eyesight in old age, were considered near worthless wallpaper for much of the 20th century. He kept a painting of willow trees reflected in ...

THE WORLD was not always an arena of Claude Monet superfans. “Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape,” sneered Louis Leroy, an art critic, when describing Monet ...

Édouard Manet paints in his studio, surrounded by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and other 19th-century artists. | Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images In the 19th century ...