Perhaps I was starting to get a little jaded with the art of Claude Monet: too much impressionism recently perhaps. His work's been central to a couple of big, recent shows: The Tate's Impressionists in London and the Painting the Modern Garden exhibition at the Royal Academy a couple of years ago. Of course, once you get to see the new Monet and Architecture show at the National Gallery, all that quickly falls away as you see, once again, how good he always is. Never mind that he is not really painting architecture or buildings, but light and atmosphere.

At the Impressionists in London, I was struck by a sequence of paintings he made of the Houses of Parliament, a subject he actually treated in a similar way to his famous haystacks. Seeing a few side by side was striking, and a similar feeling at this new show with a sequence of paintings of Rouen Cathedral. A great and prolific artist and always worth seeing.