Oscar-Claude Monet (French: Oscar-Claude Monet; November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was a French painter, acclaimed as a leader of the Impressionist movement and one of its founding figures. Monet is among the most important painters in French history, and much of the theory and practice of Impressionism is attributable to his advocacy. He excelled in experimenting with and depicting light and shadow. His most significant stylistic innovation was in altering the treatment of shadows and contours; in Monet's paintings, distinct shadows and emphasized or outlined contours are rarely visible. The depiction of color in light and shadow is the hallmark of Monet's painting. On May 14, 2019, Monet's painting "Meules" ("Haystacks") set a record-breaking auction price of $110.7 million at Sotheby's in New York. This sale established the highest price ever paid for a Monet artwork and set a record for the highest price paid for an Impressionist painting at auction.