French Impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840-1925) has an enormous influence on Impressionism, and he is considered the father of the movement. Aside from Impression Sunrise, he is best known for his paintings of water lilies, gardens, ponds and bridges.
Early Life of Claude Monet
Claude Oscar Monet was born on November 14, 1840, to Adolphe and Louise-Justine Monet, of 90 Rue Laffitte, 9th arrondissement of Paris. His mother was a singer. When he was five, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy. His father wanted him to go into the family grocery store business, but Monet wanted to become an artist.
In April 1851, Monet entered the Le Havre secondary school. He first became known for his charcoal caricatures, and then took his first drawing lessons from Jacques-Francois Ochard, a former student of Jacques-Louis David. Six years later, on the beaches of Normandy, he met fellow artist Eugène Boudin, who taught him to use oil paints and outdoor techniques for painting.
His mother died when he was 16. He left school and lived with his widowed, childless aunt Marie Jeanne. Monet traveled to Paris to visit The Louvre, and saw painters copying from the old masters. Having brought his paints and other tools with him, he preferred to paint what he saw, sitting by a window. Monet was in Paris for several years and met friends who were painters, including Édouard Manet. They all painted in the impressionism style.
Aged 21, he joined the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in Algeria for two years of a seven-year commitment. When he contracted typhoid, his aunt Madame Lecadre intervened to get him out of the army if he agreed to complete an art course at a university. It was possible that the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, whom Monet knew, may have prompted his aunt on this matter.
Renoir, Sisley and other Painters
Monet became a student of Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frederic Bazille, and Alfred Sisley. Together they shared new approaches to art, painting the effects of light en plein air with broken color and rapid brushstrokes, in what later came to be known as Impressionism. Monet's 1866 Camille or The Woman in the Green Dress (La Femme à la Robe Verte) brought him recognition.
It was one of many works that featured his future wife, Camille Doncieux. They married in 1870, and had Jean, their first child. They had another son, Michel.
Franco-Prussian War
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Monet took refuge in England. While there he studied the works of John Constable and J. M. William Turner, both of whose landscapes later inspired his innovations in the study of color.
Argenteuil on the Seine
After the war, Monet and his family lived at Argenteuil, a village on the Seine near Paris, where he painted some of his best known works. He also also painted the famous Impression, Sunrise (Impression: soleil levant) depicting a Le Havre landscape.
Impressionism
The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of Impression, Sunrise. A title was needed in a hurry for the catalogue of the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. Monet suggested simply "Impression," and the catalogue editor, Pierre-Auguste Renoir's brother Edouard, added an explanatory "Sunrise." From the painting's title, art critic Louis Leroy coined the term "Impressionism." The painting has since been displayed in the Musée Marmottan-Monet, Paris.
Late 1870s, Early 1880s
In 1879, Monet's wife, Camille, died of tuberculosis. A friend, Alice Hoschedé decided to help the widower by bringing up his two children together with her own in Poissy. In April 1883 they moved to Giverny, in which Monet created the now famous Giverny Garden, full of perspectives and colors. He continued painting there for the rest of his life.
Sources:
- French Painting, from the Hermitage, Leningrad, Mid-19th to Early 20th century. Leningfrad: Aurora Art Publishers, 1987
- Larousse Dictionary of Painters, London: Hamlyn, 1989
- Masters of Art, by Samm Sinclair Baker and Natalie Baker. New York: Galahad Books, 1987
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