A new exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery promises to take visitors through the life of Claude Monet, from his youth as a struggling painter to the garden that inspired some of his most famous work as an established artist.

Claude Monet's Secret Garden features 38 paintings from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, including works that haven't left France in years.

Claude Monet's En promenade près d’Argenteuil was completed in 1875. (Bridgeman Giraudon/Press )

In the beginning, Monet's impressionistic style was greeted with derision, according to curator Marianne Mathieu.

"What is typical of Impressionism is that the painter, at the second part of the 19th century, they didn't want to work inside in the studio but outside. So, what Monet did, he took small canvasses, he went outdoors, and he depicted what he saw," Mathieu told the CBC's Margaret Gallagher.

"When you work outdoors, you have to do it quickly, so you see the brush is quite visible. And people were in shock at the time because it was quite new."

Claude Monet's "Sur la plage de Trouville" was painted in 1870-71. (Bridgeman Giraudon/Press )

Monet only started making money from his art in his 50s, allowing him to buy a home and develop lavish gardens in the village of Giverny.

That's where he painted the very last piece of his life, Les Roses, in 1925-26. The artwork is included in the VAG exhibition, the first time in awhile that it's travelled, according to Mathieu.

"[Guests] have to visit this exhibition as if they were an invited guest of Monet. All the paintings have been selected personally by Monet [while he was alive] to describe his career, his life," Mathieu said.

Claude Monet stands by his waterlily pond at Giverny, 1905. (RMN-Grand Palais/Art )

The Monet exhibition runs from June 24 to Oct. 1. Tickets are available online.