Claude Monet 2012 Calendar. One of the world’s most famous and best known painters, Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant). This Monet 2012 Calendar features 12 of his stunning artworks to take Monet enthusiasts through 2012.