brief biography of claude monet

Claude Monet

(1840-1926)

Who Was Claude Monet?

Claude Monet was born in 1840 in France and enrolled in the Academie Suisse. After an art exhibition in 1874, a critic insultingly dubbed Monet's painting style "Impression," since it was more concerned with form and light than realism, and the term stuck. Monet struggled with depression, poverty and illness throughout his life. He died in 1926.

Early Life and Career

One of the most famous painters in the history of art and a leading figure in the Impressionist movement, whose works can be seen in museums around the world, Oscar Claude Monet (some sources say Claude Oscar) was born on November 14, 1840, in Paris, France. Monet's father, Adolphe, worked in his family's shipping business, while his mother, Louise, took care of the family. A trained singer, Louise liked poetry and was a popular hostess.

In 1845, at the age of 5, Monet moved with his family to Le Havre, a port town in the Normandy region. He grew up there with his older brother, Leon. While he was reportedly a decent student, Monet did not like being confined to a classroom. He was more interested in being outside. At an early age, Monet developed a love of drawing. He filled his schoolbooks with sketches of people, including caricatures of his teachers. While his mother supported his artistic efforts, Monet's father wanted him to go into business. Monet suffered greatly after the death of his mother in 1857.

In the community, Monet became well-known for his caricatures and for drawing many of the town's residents. After meeting Eugene Boudin, a local landscape artist, Monet started to explore the natural world in his work. Boudin introduced him to painting outdoors, or plein air painting, which would later become the cornerstone of Monet's work.

In 1859, Monet decided to move to Paris to pursue his art. There, he was strongly influenced by the paintings of the Barbizon school and enrolled as a student at the Academie Suisse. During this time, Monet met fellow artist Camille Pissarro, who would become a close friend for many years.

From 1861 to 1862, Monet served in the military and was stationed in Algiers, Algeria, but he was discharged for health reasons. Returning to Paris, Monet studied with Charles Gleyre. Through Gleyre, Monet met several other artists, including Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille; the four of them became friends. He also received advice and support from Johann Barthold Jongkind, a landscape painter who proved to be an important influence to the young artist.

Monet liked to work outdoors and was sometimes accompanied by Renoir, Sisley and Bazille on these painting sojourns. Monet won acceptance to the Salon of 1865, an annual juried art show in Paris; the show chose two of his paintings, which were marine landscapes. Though Monet's works received some critical praise, he still struggled financially.

The following year, Monet was selected again to participate in the Salon. This time, the show officials chose a landscape and a portrait Camille (or also called Woman in Green ), which featured his lover and future wife, Camille Doncieux. Doncieux came from a humble background and was substantially younger than Monet. She served as a muse for him, sitting for numerous paintings during her lifetime. The couple experienced great hardship around the birth of their first son, Jean, in 1867. Monet was in dire financial straits, and his father was unwilling to help them. Monet became so despondent over the situation that, in 1868, he attempted suicide by trying to drown himself in the Seine River.

Fortunately, Monet and Camille soon caught a break: Louis-Joachim Guadibert became a patron of Monet's work, which enabled the artist to continue his work and care for his family. Monet and Camille married in June 1870, and following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the couple fled with their son to London, England. There, Monet met Paul Durand-Ruel, who became his first art dealer.

Returning to France after the war, in 1872, Monet eventually settled in Argenteuil, an industrial town west of Paris, and began to develop his own technique. During his time in Argenteuil, Monet visited with many of his artist friends, including Renoir, Pissarro and Edouard Manet—who, according to Monet in a later interview, at first hated him because people confused their names. Banding together with several other artists, Monet helped form the Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, as an alternative to the Salon and exhibited their works together.

Monet sometimes got frustrated with his work. According to some reports, he destroyed a number of paintings—estimates range as high as 500 works. Monet would simply burn, cut or kick the offending piece. In addition to these outbursts, he was known to suffer from bouts of depression and self-doubt.

The Master of Light and Color: "Impression, Sunrise"

The society's April 1874 exhibition proved to be revolutionary. One of Monet's most noted works in the show, "Impression, Sunrise" (1873), depicted Le Havre's harbor in a morning fog. Critics used the title to name the distinct group of artists "Impressionists," saying that their work seemed more like sketches than finished paintings.

While it was meant to be derogatory, the term seemed fitting. Monet sought to capture the essence of the natural world using strong colors and bold, short brushstrokes; he and his contemporaries were turning away from the blended colors and evenness of classical art. Monet also brought elements of industry into his landscapes, moving the form forward and making it more contemporary. Monet began to exhibit with the Impressionists after their first show in 1874, and continued into the 1880s.

Monet's personal life was marked by hardship around this time. His wife became ill during her second pregnancy (their second son, Michel, was born in 1878), and she continued to deteriorate. Monet painted a portrait of her on her death bed. Before her passing, the Monets went to live with Ernest and Alice Hoschede and their six children.

After Camille's death, Monet painted a grim set of paintings known as the Ice Drift series. He grew closer to Alice, and the two eventually became romantically involved. Ernest spent much of his time in Paris, and he and Alice never divorced. Monet and Alice moved with their respective children in 1883 to Giverny, a place that would serve as a source of great inspiration for the artist and prove to be his final home. After Ernest's death, Monet and Alice married in 1892.

Monet gained financial and critical success during the late 1880s and 1890s, and started the serial paintings for which he would become well-known. In Giverny, he loved to paint outdoors in the gardens that he helped create there. The water lilies found in the pond had a particular appeal for him, and he painted several series of them throughout the rest of his life; the Japanese-style bridge over the pond became the subject of several works, as well. (In 1918, Monet would donate 12 of his waterlily paintings to the nation of France to celebrate the Armistice.)

Sometimes Monet traveled to find other sources of inspiration. In the early 1890s, he rented a room across from the Rouen Cathedral, in northwestern France, and painted a series of works focused on the structure. Different paintings showed the building in morning light, midday, gray weather and more; this repetition was a result of Monet's deep fascination with the effects of light.

Besides the cathedral, Monet painted several things repeatedly, trying to convey the sensation of a certain time of day on a landscape or a place. He also focused the changes that light made on the forms of haystacks and poplar trees in two different painting series around this time. In 1900, Monet traveled to London, where the Thames River captured his artistic attention.

In 1911, Monet became depressed after the death of his beloved Alice. In 1912, he developed cataracts in his right eye. In the art world, Monet was out of step with the avant-garde. The Impressionists were in some ways being supplanted by the Cubist movement, led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

But there was still a great deal of interest in Monet's work. During this period, Monet began a final series of 12 waterlily paintings commissioned by the Orangerie des Tuileries, a museum in Paris. He chose to make them on a very large scale, designed to fill the walls of a special space for the canvases in the museum; he wanted the works to serve as a "haven of peaceful meditation," believing that the images would soothe the "overworked nerves" of visitors.

His Orangerie des Tuileries project consumed much of Monet's later years. In writing to a friend, Monet stated, "These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession for me. It is beyond my strength as an old man, and yet I want to render what I feel." Monet's health proved to be an obstacle, as well. Nearly blind, with both of his eyes now seriously affected by cataracts, Monet finally consented to undergo surgery for the ailment in 1923.

Later Years and Death

As he experienced in other points in his life, Monet struggled with depression in his later years. He wrote to one friend that "Age and chagrin have worn me out. My life has been nothing but a failure, and all that's left for me to do is to destroy my paintings before I disappear." Despite his feelings of despair, he continued working on his paintings until his final days.

Monet died on December 5, 1926, at his home in Giverny. Monet once wrote, "My only merit lies in having painted directly in front of nature, seeking to render my impressions of the most fleeting effects." Most art historians believe that Monet accomplished much more than this: He helped change the world of painting by shaking off the conventions of the past. By dissolving forms in his works, Monet opened the door for further abstraction in art, and he is credited with influencing such later artists as Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning.

Since 1980, Monet's Giverny home has housed the Claude Monet Foundation.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Claude Monet
• Birth Year: 1840
• Birth date: November 14, 1840
• Birth City: Paris
• Birth Country: France
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Claude Monet was a famous French painter whose work gave a name to the art movement Impressionism, which was concerned with capturing light and natural forms.
• Astrological Sign: Scorpio
• Académie Suisse
• Nacionalities
• Interesting Facts
• Monet attempted suicide in 1868—one year after his first child was born—by trying to drown himself in the Seine River.
• In 1918, Claude Monet donated 12 of his waterlily paintings to the nation of France to celebrate the Armistice.
• Though they became friends later in life, Claude Monet claimed in an interview that Eduoard Manet at first hated him because people confused their names.
• Death Year: 1926
• Death date: December 5, 1926
• Death City: Giverny
• Death Country: France

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Claude Monet Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/artist/claude-monet
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: August 10, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• Merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives your own naïve impression of the scene before you.
• My only merit lies in having painted directly in front of nature, seeking to render my impressions of the most fleeting effects.
• I want to render what I feel.
• Age and chagrin have worn me out. My life has been nothing but a failure, and all that's left for me to do is to destroy my paintings before I disappear.
• Skills come and go ... Art is always the same: a transposition of Nature that requests as much will as sensitivity.
• I strive and struggle against the sun. ... [I] should as well paint with gold and precious stones.
• School always appeared to me like a prison, and I never could make up my mind to stay there.
• I would like to paint as the bird sings.
• Without fog, London would not be a beautiful city.
• To me, the motif itself is an insignificant factor. What I want to reproduce is what exists between the motif and me.
• Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
• These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession for me. It is beyond my strength as an old man, and yet I want to render what I feel.
• Without my dear Monet, who gave us all courage, we would have given up!

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Claude Monet

French Painter

Summary of Claude Monet

Claude Monet was the leader of the French Impressionist movement, literally giving the movement its name. As an inspirational talent and personality, he was crucial in bringing its adherents together. Interested in painting in the open air and capturing natural light, Monet would later bring the technique to one of its most famous pinnacles with his series paintings, in which his observations of the same subject, viewed at various times of the day, were captured in numerous sequences. Masterful as a colorist and as a painter of light and atmosphere, his later work often achieved a remarkable degree of abstraction, and this has recommended him to subsequent generations of abstract painters.

Accomplishments

• Inspired in part by Édouard Manet , Monet departed from the clear depiction of forms and linear perspective, which were prescribed by the established art of the time, and experimented with loose handling, bold color, and strikingly unconventional compositions. The emphasis in his pictures shifted from representing figures to depicting different qualities of light and atmosphere in each scene.
• In his later years, Monet also became increasingly sensitive to the decorative qualities of color and form. He began to apply paint in smaller strokes, building it up in broad fields of color, and exploring the possibilities of a decorative paint surface of harmonies and contrasts of color. The effects that he achieved, particularly in the series paintings of the 1890s, represent a remarkable advance towards abstraction and towards a modern painting focused purely on surface effects.
• An inspiration and a leader among the Impressionists, he was crucial in attracting Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Alfred Sisley , Édouard Manet and Camille Pissarro to work alongside each other in and around Paris. He was also important in establishing the exhibition society that would showcase the group's work between 1874 and 1886.

The Life of Claude Monet

From the theoretical and critical battles with the emerging Impressionists in Paris, to the later love of spending his time outdoors studying light, Monet was driven all his life by his passions. As he said "I am good at only two things, and those are gardening and painting."

Important Art by Claude Monet

Women in the Garden

Women in the Garden was painted at Ville d'Avray using his future wife Camille as the only model. The goal of this large-scale work (100" by 81"), while meticulously composed, was to render the effects of true outdoor light, rather than regard conventions of modeling or drapery. From the flickers of sunlight that pierce the foliage of the trees to delicate shadows and the warm flesh tones that can be seen through his model's sleeve, Monet details the behavior of natural light in the scene. In January 1867, his friend and fellow Impressionist Frederic Bazille purchased the work for the sum of 2,500 francs in order to help Monet out of the extreme debt that he was suffering from at the time.

Oil on canvas - Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Westminster Bridge (aka The Thames below Westminster)

Painted on the Embankment in London, Monet's Westminster Bridge is one of the finest examples of his work during the time he and his family were in wartime refuge. This simple, asymmetrical composition is balanced by the horizontal bridge, the boats floating upon the waves with the vertical wharf and ladder in the foreground. The entire scene is dominated by a layer of mist containing violet, gold, pink, and green, creating a dense atmosphere that renders the architecture in distant, blurred shapes.

Oil on canvas - The National Gallery, London

Boulevard des Capucines

Boulevard des Capucines captures a scene of the hustle and bustle of Parisian life from the studio of Monet's friend, the photographer Felix Nadar. Applying very little detail, Monet uses short, quick brushstrokes to create the "impression" of people in the city alive with movement. Critic Leroy was not pleased with these abstracted crowds, describing them as "black tongue-lickings." Monet painted two views from this location, with this one looking towards the Place de l'Opera. The first Impressionist exhibition was held in Nadar's studio, and rather appropriately, Monet included this piece in the show.

Oil on canvas - Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, USA

Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son

One of Monet's most popular figure paintings, Lady with a Parasol showcases the woman's accessory. The parasol itself makes many appearances in his work, primarily because when painting from real life outdoors, most women would use one to protect their skin and eyes. But the object also creates a contrast of light and shadows on the figure's face and clothing, indicating which direction the actual light is coming from. Quite uniquely, Monet paints into the light letting the model's features fade into the shadow. Most artists would avoid such a positioning of their subject as it is difficult to reproduce any detail - and even to look at your subject. But Monet is interested in light itself, and captures it in the scene in an unmatched way.

Oil on canvas - The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

The Rue Montorgueil in Paris. Celebration of June 30th, 1878

Historians and scientists believe that Monet happened upon discoveries in vision and optics. Professor Ian Aaronson believes that Monet was endowed with hyper-sensitive visual abilities where he could notice things that most people would miss. For example, in this work if one were to look at the way the flags themselves are painted, they look quite blurry and unclear. But when the viewer looks down at the crowd, the flags seem to wave in peripheral vision (best to try this on the real painting, not a reproduction). As in this example, Monet seems to have come upon several particularities of vision, and painterly effects, that were not properly proved by science for many years after his death.

Rouen Cathedral: The Facade at Sunset

Monet's Rouen Cathedral: The Facade at Sunset series is one of his most renowned. He painted the cathedral at different times of day to explore the effects of different light during winter. The burnt orange and blue appearance of the cathedral dominates the canvas, with only scattered views of sky at the top. Layered over the top of the Gothic structure, the brushstrokes play with the light and atmosphere on the stones, and the details on their carved surfaces. In 1895, he exhibited twenty Cathedrals at the Durand-Ruel Gallery that were both criticized and praised by viewers that either struggled with or championed his artistic, scientific, and poetic innovations. As art historian Madalena Dabrowski wrote: "the site is [only] a reference point, but is transformed and conditioned by light, color, and Monet's own vision." Painting in a series, or making any kind of artwork with subtle changes from one piece to the next has been a staple of modern art for many artists, from Andy Warhol to the Minimalists, to Conceptual artists. Not only has it been a way for artists to explore subtle difference between subjects, but some artists reference Monet directly in their series works.

Oil on canvas - Museums of Fine Arts, Boston

Water Lilies

The Nymphéas cycle is a part of Monet's water landscape group that he started working on in the late 1890s. As explained on the Musée de l'Orangerie website: the word nymphéa comes from the Greek word numphé, meaning nymph, which takes its name from the Classical myth that attributes the birth of the flower to a nymph who was dying of love for Hercules. In fact, it is also a scientific term for a water lily. This series occupied Monet until his death 30 years later and includes dozens of canvases creating a panorama of water, lilies, and sky in his studio inspired by his Giverny garden. The most famous of this series are the eight large panels of Water Lillies that are installed in two eliptical rooms of the L'Orangerie museum in Paris. Monet describes his goals for the project: "Imagine a circular room, whose walls are entirely filled by a horizon of water spotted with these plants. Walls of transparency - sometimes green, sometimes verging on mauve. The silence and calm of the water reflecting the flowering display; the tones are vague, deliciously nuanced, as delicate as a dream." The ultimate installation is considered to be one of the greatest achievement of Monet, Impressionism, and even 20 th -century art. The lighting and setup in the museum maximizes the viewers' experience next to these works, providing, as Monet said, an "illusion of an endless whole, of a wave with no horizon and no shore". These works would be enormously influential for many artists, but the all over composition would particularly inspire the Abstract Expressionist large-scale canvases of The New York School.

Oil on canvas - Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Biography of Claude Monet

Born in Paris, Oscar Claude Monet moved at the age of five to Le Havre, a seaside town in northern France. His father was a successful grocer that later turned to shipping. His mother died when he was 15. The ocean and rugged coastline of Northern France had a profound effect on him at an early age, and he would often run away from school to go for walks along the cliffs and beaches. As a youth, he received instruction at the College du Havre from a former pupil of the famous Neo-Classical artist Jacques-Louis David . Creative and enterprising from an early age, he drew caricatures in his spare time and sold them for 20 francs apiece. Capitalizing on his early aptitude for art, he managed to save a good bit of money from his art sales.

Early Training

A pivotal experience occurred in 1856 when Monet became friends with Eugéne Boudin , a landscape painter famous for his scenes of northern French coastal towns. Boudin encouraged him to paint outdoors, and this en plein air technique changed Monet's concept of how art could be created: "It was as if a veil was torn from my eyes; I had understood. I grasped what painting could be."

Despite being rejected for a scholarship, in 1859 Monet moved to Paris to study with help from his family. However, instead of choosing the more customary career path of a Salon painter by enrolling at the École des Beaux-Arts, Monet attended the more avant-garde Académie Suisse, where he met fellow artist Camille Pissarro .

Mature Period

Obliged to serve in the military, in 1861 Monet was sent to Algiers. Like Eugène Delacroix before him, the north African environment stimulated Monet and affected his artistic and personal outlook. Coming home to Le Havre after his service, his "final education of the eye" was provided by the Dutch landscape and marine artist Johan Jongkind. Following this, Monet again left for Paris, attending the studio of Swiss artist Charles Gleyre, which included such students - and future Impressionists - as Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley .

In 1865, the Paris Salon accepted two of Monet's seascapes for exhibition. However, the artist was feeling confined by working in a studio, preferring his earlier experience of painting in nature, so he moved just outside Paris to the edge of the Fontainebleau forest. Using his future wife, Camille Doncieux, as his sole model, his ambitiously large Women in the Garden (1866-67) was a culmination of the ideas and themes in his earlier work. Monet was hopeful that the work would be included in the Paris Salon, but his style kept him at odds with the jurors and the picture was refused, leaving the artist devastated. The official salon at this time still valued Romanticism . (In 1921, to assuage the 50-year-old insult, Monet made the French government purchase the painting for the enormous sum of 200,000 francs.)

To escape the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Monet took refuge in London, producing many scenes such as Westminster Bridge (1871). His wife and their new baby boy Jean joined him. He visited London museums and saw the works of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner , whose romantic naturalism clearly influenced his use of light. Most importantly, he met Paul Durand-Ruel, who ran a new modern art gallery on Bond Street. Durand-Ruel became a major supporter of Monet and Pissarro, and later Renoir, Degas, and other French Impressionists.

Returning to France after the war, Monet settled his family in Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris along the Seine River. Over the next six years he developed his style and documented the changes in the growing town in over 150 canvases. His presence also attracted Parisian friends including Renoir and Manet. While Manet was 10 years older and became an established artist much earlier than Monet, by the 1870s each influenced the other in significant ways, and Monet had successfully won Manet over to plein air painting by 1874.

In a continued effort to protest the salon system, Monet and his friends organized their own exhibition in 1874, held in the vacated studio of photographer and caricaturist Nadar . This became known as the first Impressionist exhibition. These artists, including Renoir, Degas, and Pissarro, were the first artists to collectively respond to the changes in their city. The modernization of Paris was evident in the wider boulevards needed to accommodate the expanding fashions of public life and growing traffic of consumerism. Not only was their subject matter new, but the way they portrayed this reality was unique as well. Intuitive feeling and the essence of spontaneity, of the moment, were impressed upon the canvas. It was through the 1873 work Impression, Sunrise that Monet inadvertently gave the movement its name, although that name was actually initially used by writers to criticize these types of works.

While Monet's upbringing was rather middle class, his extravagant tastes led him to live much of his life in varying degrees of poverty and debt. His paintings were not a decent source of income and he often had to borrow money from his friends. After receiving several commissions throughout the 1870s, Monet enjoyed some financial success, but was in dire straits by the end of the decade.

In 1877, the Monet family was living in the town of Vetheuil with Alice Hoschede and her six children. The Hoschede family were great friends and patrons of Monet's work, but the husband's business went bankrupt, and he ended up abandoning his family. Thus, Monet had to find an inexpensive house for the large household. Camille gave birth to their second son, Michel in 1878. But when Camille died about a year and a half later, there was a change in Monet's work, focusing more on the flux of experiential time and the mediating effects of atmosphere and personality on subject matter. Alice continued living with Monet, and she became his second wife in 1892 (after Ernest Hoschede passed away).

In 1883, Monet was looking for a house for Alice and their (combined) eight children. He happened on a property in a sleepy town called Giverny, that had a total of 300 inhabitants. He fell in love with a house and garden that he as able to rent, and later buy (and greatly expand) in 1890.

The property at Giverny was Monet's primary inspiration for the last three decades of his life. He created a Japanese garden for contemplation and relaxation, making a pond filled with water lilies with an arched bridge. He famously said: "My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece. I work at my garden all the time and with love. What I need most are flowers. Always. My heart is forever in Giverny, perhaps I owe it to the flowers that I became a painter."

It was at Giverny that Monet found his ultimate success. His paintings began to sell in the United States, England, and locally. He became quite the gentleman employing a large staff in his house, including six gardeners that maintained his beloved garden and lily pond.

Monet was less concerned with modernity in his works and more with atmosphere and environment. His series of grainstacks, painted at different times throughout the day, received critical acclaim from opinion-makers, buyers, and the public when exhibited at Durand-Ruel's gallery. He then turned his sights to Rouen Cathedral, making similar studies of the effects of changing mood, light, and atmosphere on its facade at different times of the day. The results were dozens of canvases of brilliant, slightly exaggerated colors that formed a visual record of accumulated perceptions.

Late Years and Death

Ultimately, Monet preferred to be alone with nature, creating his paintings rather than participating in theoretical or critical battles within the artistic and cultural scene of Paris. Whereas he traveled throughout the 1880s and 1890 to places like London, Venice, Norway, and around France - in 1908 he settled for the remainder of his life in Giverny. The year 1911 saw the death of his second wife Alice, followed by the passing on of his son Jean. Shattered by these deaths, the ragings of the First World War, and even a cataract forming over one of his eyes, Monet essentially ceased to paint.

At the time, the French statesman Georges Clemenceau who happened to also be Monet's friend asked Monet to create an artwork that would lift the country out of the gloom of the Great War. At first, Monet said he was too old and not up to the task, but eventually Clemenceau lifted him out of his mourning by encouraging him to create a glorious artwork - what Monet called "the great decoration". Monet conceived a continuous sequence of waterscapes situated in an oval salon as a world within a world. A new studio with a glass wall facing the garden was built for this purpose, and despite having cataracts (one of which he had surgically removed), Monet was able to move a portable easel around to different places within the studio to capture the ever-changing light and perspective of his water lilies. He continued to work on his water paintings right up until the end of his life.

The Orangerie museum was ultimately built with two eliptical rooms constructed to house Monet's water lilies. The all-over compositions of the canvases and the designed rooms allowed the viewer to feel as if they were within the water surrounded by the foliage. The ultimate installation was loved by many critics, and was most famously proclaimed "the Sistine Chapel of Impressionism" by the Surrealist writer and artist Andre Masson .

The Legacy of Claude Monet

Monet's extraordinarily long life and large artistic output befit the enormity of his contemporary popularity. Impressionism, for which he is a pillar, continues to be one of the most popular artistic movement as evidenced by its massive popular consumption in the form of calendars, postcards, and posters. Of course, Monet's paintings command top prices at auctions and some are considered priceless, in fact, Monet's work is in every major museum worldwide.

Even though his works are now canonized, for a number of years after Monet's death, he was only known in select circles of art lovers. The major renaissance of his work occurred in New York by the Abstract Expressionists . Artists like Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock , and critics such as Clement Greenberg learned much from Monet's large canvases, and semi-abstract, all-over compositions. Pop artists also referred to Monet's haystacks in pieces like Andy Warhol's repeating portraits. Similarly, many Minimalists used the same technique in their serial display of objects. In fact, Impressionism and Monet are now considered the basis for all of modern and contemporary art, and are thus quintessential to almost any historical survey.

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Claude Monet

• Defining Modern Art Take a look at the big picture of modern art, and Monet's role in it.
• Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies Our Pick By Ross King / Details Monet's process of painting the Water Lilies series.
• Monet: His Life & Works in 500 Images Our Pick By Susie Hodge / Monet's life depicted by groupings of works he painted.
• Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism By Daniel Wildenstein
• First Impressions: Claude Monet By Ann Waldron
• Claude Monet - 1840-1926: A Feast for the Eyes By Karin Sagner
• Monet By Robert Gordon, Andrew Forge
• Monet's Impressions By the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Claude Monet: Life and Art Our Pick By Paul Hayes Tucker
• Monet: Water Lilies: The Complete Series Our Pick By Jean-Dominique Rey, Denis Rouart
• Claude Monet: The Color of Time Our Pick By Virginia Spate
• The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings By James A. Ganz, Richard Kendall
• Claude Monet: Water Lilies Our Pick By Ann Temkin, Nora Lawrence, Claude Monet
• Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature Our Pick By Ortrud Westheider, Michael Philipp, and Christoph Heinrich
• Monet (Basic Art Series 2.0) By Christoph Heinrich
• The Claude Monet Foundation Official Website
• Monet Website Organized by Giverny government
• Claude Monet Gallery Over 1700 paintings by Monet
• Inside His Sketchbooks, Clues to Monet By Benjamin Genocchio / The New York Times / August 10, 2007
• Monet Arrives and Ripens Our Pick By Roberta Smith / The New York Times / May 4, 2007
• 15 Things You Might Not Know Aout Monet's Water Lillies By Kristy Puchko / MentalFloss.com
• Variability, Constraints, and Creativity: Shedding Light on Claude Monet By Patricia D. Stokes / American Psychologist / April 2001
• The French Impressionists rediscovered: ‘They didn’t know their works would be masterpieces’ Our Pick By Elizabeth Flux / The Guardian / June 25, 2021
• Under a Monet Painting, Restorers Find New Water Lilies By Nina Siegal / The New York Times / June 3, 2019
• A Glimpse Inside Claude Monet’s Private Art World By Farah Nayeri / The New York Times / September 8, 2017
• Five Experts Discuss Monet’s Most Beguiling Paintings Our Pick By Claire Selvin / ArtNews / January 6, 2021
• Monet: Shadow and Light (1999) Our Pick Feature Film

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Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Claude monet (1840–1926).

The Bodmer Oak, Fontainebleau Forest

Claude Monet

Garden at Sainte-Adresse

Regatta at Sainte-Adresse

La Grenouillère

Camille Monet (1847–1879) on a Garden Bench

The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil

Edouard Manet

Poppy Fields near Argenteuil

The Parc Monceau

View of Vétheuil

The Manneporte near Etretat

Haystacks (Effect of Snow and Sun)

The Four Trees

Rouen Cathedral: The Portal (Sunlight)

Water Lilies

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog)

Laura Auricchio Department of Art & Design Studies, Parsons The New School for Design

October 2004

Claude Monet was a key figure in the Impressionist movement that transformed French painting in the second half of the nineteenth century. Throughout his long career, Monet consistently depicted the landscape and leisure activities of Paris and its environs as well as the Normandy coast. He led the way to twentieth-century modernism by developing a unique style that strove to capture on canvas the very act of perceiving nature.

Raised in Normandy, Monet was introduced to plein-air painting by Eugène Boudin ( 2003.20.2 ), known for paintings of the resorts that dotted the region’s Channel coast, and subsequently studied informally with the Dutch landscapist Johan Jongkind (1819–1891). When he was twenty-two, Monet joined the Paris studio of the academic history painter Charles Gleyre. His classmates included Auguste Renoir , Frédéric Bazille, and other future Impressionists. Monet enjoyed limited success in these early years, with a handful of landscapes, seascapes, and portraits accepted for exhibition at the annual Salons of the 1860s. Yet rejection of many of his more ambitious works, notably the large-scale Women in the Garden (1866; Musée d’Orsay, Paris ), inspired Monet to join with Edgar Degas , Édouard Manet , Camille Pissarro, Renoir, and others in establishing an independent exhibition in 1874. Impression, Sunrise (1873; Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris), one of Monet’s contributions to this exhibition, drew particular scorn for the unfinished appearance of its loose handling and indistinct forms. Yet the artists saw the criticism as a badge of honor, and subsequently called themselves “Impressionists” after the painting’s title, even though the name was first used derisively.

Monet found subjects in his immediate surroundings, as he painted the people and places he knew best. His first wife, Camille ( 2002.62.1 ), and his second wife, Alice, frequently served as models. His landscapes chart journeys around the north of France ( 31.67.11 ) and to London, where he escaped the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Returning to France, Monet moved first to Argenteuil, just fifteen minutes from Paris by train, then west to Vétheuil, Poissy, and finally to the more rural Giverny in 1883. His homes and gardens became gathering places for friends, including Manet and Renoir , who often painted alongside their host ( 1976.201.14 ). Yet Monet’s paintings cast a surprisingly objective eye on these scenes, which include few signs of domestic relations.

Following in the path of the Barbizon painters , who had set up their easels in the Fontainebleau Forest ( 64.210 ) earlier in the century, Monet adopted and extended their commitment to close observation and naturalistic representation. Whereas the Barbizon artists painted only preliminary sketches en plein air , Monet often worked directly on large-scale canvases out of doors, then reworked and completed them in his studio. His quest to capture nature more accurately also prompted him to reject European conventions governing composition, color, and perspective. Influenced by Japanese woodblock prints , Monet’s asymmetrical arrangements of forms emphasized their two-dimensional surfaces by eliminating linear perspective and abandoning three-dimensional modeling. He brought a vibrant brightness to his works by using unmediated colors, adding a range of tones to his shadows, and preparing canvases with light-colored primers instead of the dark grounds used in traditional landscape paintings.

Monet’s interest in recording perceptual processes reached its apogee in his series paintings (e.g., Haystacks [1891], Poplars [1892], Rouen Cathedral [1894]) that dominate his output in the 1890s. In each series, Monet painted the same site again and again, recording how its appearance changed with the time of day. Light and shadow seem as substantial as stone in his Rouen Cathedral ( 30.95.250 ) series. Monet reports that he rented a room across from the cathedral’s western facade in 1892 and 1893, where he kept multiple canvases in process and moved from one to the next as the light shifted. In 1894, he reworked the canvases to their finished states.

In the 1910s and 1920s, Monet focused almost exclusively on the picturesque water-lily pond ( 1983.532 ) that he created on his property at Giverny. His final series depicts the pond in a set of mural-sized canvases where abstract renderings of plant and water emerge from broad strokes of color and intricately built-up textures. Shortly after Monet died (a wealthy and well-respected man at the age of eighty-six), the French government installed his last water-lily series in specially constructed galleries at the Orangerie in Paris, where they remain today.

Auricchio, Laura. “Claude Monet (1840–1926).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cmon/hd_cmon.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

House, John. Monet: Nature into Art . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

Tucker, Paul Hayes. Claude Monet: Life and Art . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

Additional Essays by Laura Auricchio

• Auricchio, Laura. “ The Transformation of Landscape Painting in France .” (October 2004)
• Auricchio, Laura. “ Eighteenth-Century Women Painters in France .” (October 2004)
• Auricchio, Laura. “ The Nabis and Decorative Painting .” (October 2004)

Related Essays

• American Impressionism
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• Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
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• Nineteenth-Century French Realism
• Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)
• The Salon and the Royal Academy in the Nineteenth Century
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List of Rulers

• List of Rulers of Europe
• France, 1800–1900 A.D.
• France, 1900 A.D.–present
• 19th Century A.D.
• Arboreal Landscape
• Architecture
• Barbizon School
• Floral Motif
• Impressionism
• Oil on Canvas
• Preparatory Study
• Printmaking
• School of Fontainebleau

Artist or Maker

• Boudin, Eugène
• Degas, Edgar
• Jongkind, Johan Barthold
• Manet, Édouard
• Monet, Claude
• Pissarro, Camille
• Renoir, Auguste

Online Features

• The Artist Project: “George Condo on Claude Monet’s The Path through the Irises “
• Connections: “Light” by Bruce Schwarz
• Connections: “Trees” by Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide

Claude Monet

• Style and Technique
• Critical Reception
• Bathers at La Grenouillère
• Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies

Déjeuner sur l'herbe

• Houses of Parliament
• Houses of Parliament: Effect of Sunlight in the Fog
• Houses of Parliament: Sun Breaking through the Fog
• Houses of Parliament: Sunlight Effect
• Impression Sunrise
• Jean Monet on His Hobby Horse

On the Bank of the Seine Bennecourt

• Rouen Cathedral Full Sunlight
• Springtime on La Grande Jatte
• The Water Lilies
• The Woman in the Garden
• Wheatstacks (End of Summer)
• Woman Seated on a Bench
• Woman in the Green Dress

Claude Monet Biography

• Oscar Claude Monet
• Short Name:
• Alternative Names:
• Date of Birth:
• 14 Nov 1840
• Date of Death:
• 05 Dec 1926
• Oil, Crayon
• Figure, Landscapes, Scenery
• http://giverny.org/monet/welcome.htm
• Art Movement:
• Impressionism
• Paris, France
• Claude Monet Biography Page's Content

Introduction

• Early Years
• Middle Years
• Advanced Years

Impressionist forerunner Claude Monet had a long and illustrious artistic career, which spanned over two centuries. The Paris-born artist married twice, lived through two wars, lost two wives and painted from as far as London to the Mediterranean. Most importantly however, Monet was considered the leader of one of the most vibrantly different influential artistic movements after Realism.

Claude Monet Early Years

Potential Grocer

Monet fought his father's desire for him to become a grocer. The family owned a grocery business but Monet was sure from a young age that his future lay in art.

Claude Monet, or Oscar Monet as he was christened, was born on the 14th November 1840 in Paris. Monet was to spend many of his formative years in Le Havre in Normandy, however, as his parents moved there when he was five. It was in Le Havre that Monet's ambition to become an artist was encouraged by an educational institution. A young Monet attended Le Havre secondary school of the arts where he made a name for himself selling charcoal caricatures. His love of art and determination to be an artist was compounded by his continued schooling by renowned names in art history; he took lessons from Jacques-Francois Ochard, who himself was a student of Jacques-Louis David, and also studied under the tutelage of Eugéne Boudin, who introduced him to painting with oil paints and shared with him his style of "en plein air" or outside style of painting. Upon his return to Paris some years later, Monet was exposed to the old masters in the Louvre and would make the acquaintance of other influential Impressionist painters, such as Edouard Manet. As Monet approached maturity as an artist his style began to diverge in a direction previously unseen. He preferred to paint outside and went against a variety of artistic traditions in pursuit of an artistic form that he felt comfortable with. Such a pursuit led him towards experimentation with color and light. Through his artistic portrayals Monet was attempting to depict outdoor sunlight with sketch-like precision.

Claude Monet Middle Years

Intended Insult

In response to Impression, Sunrise art critic Louise Leroy said that the work seemed unfinished and like an "impression" . The comment, which was intended to disparage was used by the Impressionist as a name for their movement.

A Disaster at Sea

Joseph Mallord William Turner

After a brief career in the army, Monet returned to Paris disillusioned with the direction of art being taught. He studied for a brief time under the watchful gaze of Charles Gleyre, where he met like-minded artists, including Auguste Renoir. The beginnings of the Impressionism circle formed in Paris, with the artistic principle of painting the effects of outdoor light with rapid brush strokes and broken color. Monet's focus brought with it his first taste of artistic recognition as he went on to paint his future wife, Camille Doncieux. The pair would later welcome their first son, Jean and later married. Monet and his family relocated to London for a while due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and it was here that he witnessed the landscape work of John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner. Monet and his family moved around substantially after London, staying in Zaandam and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Monet also moved to the village of Argenteuil in France for a brief time. In 1872 he settled back in France and painted perhaps one of his first true Impressionist paintings, Impression, Sunrise. This work was the centrepiece of the first Impressionist exhibition in Musée Marmottan Monet, in Paris. Shortly after the birth of their second son, Monet lost his first wife Camille to tuberculosis in 1879. A dedicated painter, Monet sought to paint his ailing wife on her death bed. Resolved by his loss, Monet painted a series of land and seascape paintings. For Monet, this marked a transitional period where he no longer seemed interested in incorporating human figures into his work. In 1880 Monet remarried Vétheuil local Alice Hoschedé and he and his ever growing family moved once more. His move to Giverny was perhaps one of the most influential in his illustrious painting career.

Claude Monet Advanced Years

Further Exploration in Light and Color

Before settling to dedicate the rest of his professional career to painting scenes from his property in Giverny, Monet traveled to the Mediterranean. Here he relished the opportunity to fully explore his love of natural lighted scenes.

Now considered one of the foremost authorities and leader of the impressionist movement, Monet made an important move to a house in Giverny, Upper Normandy. There he began painting his now famous water garden and the inspiration for perhaps one of his most renowned works. Monet's aim was to paint a series of paintings depicting various natural scenes in different light conditions. The first of these was a series of paintings of Haystacks from different angles and at different times of day. Monet went on to paint, Rouen Cathedral, Poplars and Water Lilies. These and many other paintings painted on Monet's property were exhibited at the Galerie Durand-Ruel. The artist's ailing health and increasingly bad eyesight were evident in his work. He began to suffer from cataracts and 1923 had two operations to remove them. Before then, however, his work in response to the First World War including a series of Weeping Willow trees has a reddish tone not uncommon to that of cataract sufferers. After the operations, Monet altered some of his water lilies painting. Many believe this is a direct reflection of his changing vision, which was said to have been capable of perceiving ultraviolet wavelengths of light that eyes can normally not see. Monet died of lung cancer on December 5 th 1926 at the age of 86. His final resting place is the Giverny church cemetery.