Claude Monet, photo by Nadar, 1899.
Born	Oscar-Claude Monet 14 November 1840 Paris, France
Died	5 December 1926 (aged 86) Giverny, France
Nationality	French
Known for	Painter
Notable work	Impression, Sunrise Rouen Cathedral series London Parliament series Water Lilies Haystacks Poplars
Movement	Impressionism
Patron(s)	Gustave Caillebotte, Ernest Hoschedé, Georges Clemenceau

Oscar-Claude Monet (/moʊˈneɪ/; French: [klod mɔnɛ]; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) 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.^[1][2] The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.

Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883 Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property, and began a vast landscaping project which included lily ponds that would become the subjects of his best-known works. In 1899 he began painting the water lilies, first in vertical views with a Japanese bridge as a central feature, and later in the series of large-scale paintings that was to occupy him continuously for the next 20 years of his life.

See list of works with dates here: Artsy.net

LOTS and LOTS of great character design* inspiration :D 

*Remember a great design should clearly communicate the characters emotional core and that all the power is in the silhouette (not the details (although you need some of them too). In addition the silhouette must be clear, clean and iconic.

Maquette sculpture (with a few 3D models and final products mixed in).

Historically a maquette (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names plastico or modello) is a small scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. 

In entertainment a maquette is a sculpture which animators or illustrators use as a character reference. It's a way of getting a real 3 dimensional view of something that doesn't really exist.