Crossword Genius

Artist requiring mostly brass and tin to start with (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

monet

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'artist' is the definition.
(painter Claude Monet)

'brass and tin to start with' is the wordplay.
'brass' becomes 'mone' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'to start with' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'tin' is 't'.
'mone'+'t'='MONET'

'requiring mostly' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for monet that I've seen before include "Giverny painter" , "French artist shown in ..." , "Claude --, French impressionist painter" , "French Impressionist with famous garden" , "'Water Lilies' 13ac" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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