Claude Monet (sometimes Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet) was a French artist, born on the 14th of November 1840 in Paris. Monet died on the 5th December 1926 in Giverny. As a painter Monet is today best known as a main founder of impressionism. Nevertheless, Claude Monet’s early work (until the mid-1860s) consisted of realistic images. Some of them were even admitted for exhibitions at the Paris Salon; the most important exhibition of established art at those times in France. During the late 1860s Claude Monet’s began turning towards the impressionist style. Famous is Impression, Sunrise, which even gave the whole movement its name. The financial impact of this change was less advantageous, though until the late 1890s. Today, however, Monet’s paintings belong to the most expensive of modern art.
Claude Monet: Early Life
Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 in the Rue Lafitte, 45 in Paris. Claude was the second son of Adolphe Claude Monet and his wife Louise Justine Aubrée. His father owned a colonial goods store, but their economic situation deteriorated until 1845. Thus, the family had to move to Le Havre at the Seine. There, Claude Monet’s father could work for the trading group of a family member.
Claude Monet attended the college in Le Havre from 1851 to 1857, where he his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard. But Monet was not at ease with the academic discipline preferred to spend his time at the cliffs or at the sea. During the lessons Monet used to produce caricatures of students and teachers and at the age of 15, Claude Monet was known in the city for his caricatures. He received orders for which he was able to charge rates of 20 francs. His caricatures were even featured in the window of the local frame dealer, next to the paintings of Eugene Boudin. Monet didn’t like the paintings of the latter, but the dealer managed to present Claude to Boudin and the latter encouraged Claude not to waste his talent with cartoons. He recommended landscapes instead.
Training and Career
After the death of his mother on 28 January 1857 Claude Monet’s aunt, who was herself a hobby painter took care of the young Claude. His father soon took over the business after its owner died. In this year Monet first executed his first landscape painting and he decided to become a painter. His father applied for a scholarship at Le Harve, but was rejected twice. Nevertheless, Monet traveled to Paris to visit the exhibition at the Paris Salon and made contact with artists like Constant Troyon and Armand Gautier. Monet worked in the studio of the painter Charles Montginot, who was friends with Boudin. During this time, Monet relied on the financial support from his father, but had also 2000 francs available, earned from his cartoons. In 1860 the finanicial aid by his father was reduced as Monet refused to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Monet opted rather for the Académie Suisse, where he dealt primarily with character studies.
Monet visited exhibitions of the art colony of Barbizon, which was opposed to the common idealized landscape compositions and preferred instead landscapes in the realism style. Claude Monet also attended the Brasserie des Martyrs, which was a meeting point of many modern artists and authors.
In April 1861 Claude Monet was ordered for seven years of military service. He had the possibility to escape for 2500 francs, but could not afford it with his own funds and his family wanted in return that he would give up painting and take over the business in Le Havre. Thus, Claude Monet chose art and was assigned to the Cavalry in Algeria. After he fell ill with typhoid fever, he was allowed to return to Le Havre in summer 1862. There he met Johan Barthold Jongkind from the Netherlands. They worked together on landscape studies and in November 1862 Claude Monet was escaped from the last six years of military service by his aunt for the higher sum of 3,000 francs.
Auguste Toulmouche recommended Monet the studio of Charles Gleyre, where also Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frédéric Bazille were enrolled. Together with Bazille, Monet painted landscapes Barbizon in 1863, as well as in the following year. But he also continued his studies at Gleyre until the latter closed his workshop in July 1864. During the summer Monet, Bazille, Jongkind and Boudin painted on the English Channel, Normandy. Monet’s family though threatened him after some quarrels to cancel his financial support and Claude asked Bazille for the first time for money. Nevertheless, while studying there, Monet wore expensive shirts with lace cuffs and was described by his classmates as Dandy.
The last Years of Claude Monet
During 1908 the first signs of Monet’s eye disease showed up. From September to December he stood with his wife in Venice. There, he did not paint, only but also studied works by artists like Titian and Paolo Veronese. On 19 May 1911 Monet’s second wife Alice died, too. During the following year his eyesight deteriorated further and a cataract on both eyes was diagnosed. But there were some lucky events, too: in 1912 Monet’s paintings of Venice had a great success at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. In 1914, Georges Clemenceau and some other friends suggested Monet to donate some paintings of his water lilies series to the French state. But Monet, who already renounced to honors by the state before, refused. After the death of his son Jean Monet, his widow took over the household in Giverny and Claude Monet 1915 set up a third, larger studio, where he painted the decorations for the water lilies. At the end of World War I, on 11 November 1918 Monet donated eight of his water lily paintings to the French government. But he did not sign the contract for the donation until 1922 and meanwhile, thought even of withdrawing the donation. After two operations in 1923, Claude Monet gained his sight back. He immediately turned back to his big lily paintings, but was hampered by depression. Monet destroyed many of his last paintings himself as he did not want unfinished works and sketches to spill the market as in the case of Manet. Claude Monet died on the 5th of December 1926 in Giverny.
