The Sea and the Science She Inspires

For centuries, painters and poets have looked to the ocean for insight. Researchers, too, have found their muse in the Earth’s salty realm.

Written byBob Grant

| 4 min read

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he style and sensibilities of Impressionist painter Claude Monet emerged from the ocean. He is arguably most famous for his paintings of the ponds and water lilies that dotted his verdant home in landlocked Giverny, but Impression, Sunrise, the painting that christened an artistic movement, depicted the bustling port of the seaside town of Le Havre in Normandy. Monet was raised from the age of five in Le Havre, and it was there that he met Eugène Boudin, a marine painter who would teach the young artist to use oils and paint outdoors. The eager student would paint numerous seascapes throughout his robust career, and Monet once famously said: “It is extraordinary to see the sea; what a spectacle! She is so unfettered that one wonders whether it is possible that she again become calm.” Monet’s contemporaries, such as Vincent van Gogh and ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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