Michael Howard is Senior Lecturer in history of art and design at the Metropolitan University in Manchester. His previous books include Gaugin (Dorling Kindersley, 1992) and Impressionism (Carlton, 1997). He has also contributed to Art Quarterly, Art Newspaper and the Times Literary Supplement.

Introduction; 1. Beginnings: 1840-62; 2. Early Influences: 1858-62; 3. Monet's Paris; Salon Success; Paradise Regained; Figures in a Landscape; Painting in the Open Air; Painting at La Grenouillere; "From Today Painting is Dead"; Exile and Homecoming; In Argenteuil: Nature and Artistic Progress; The First Impressionist Exhibition, 1874; The Later Impressionist Exhibitions; The Gare St Lazare; Life Changes; Vetheuil: A Turning Point; The 1880s: New Subjects, New Markets; Pursuing New Subjects; The First Series Paintings; Evoking "Mystery": The Mornings on the Seine Paintings; Rouen Cathedral; Painting Extremes of Climate; London; The Garden as a Work of Art; The Water Lilies: Water and Reflections; Monet in Venice; Monet in the Twentieth Century; The Water Lilies at the Orangerie; The Heritage: Abstract Expressionism.