Monet
Name: Oscar-Claude Monet
Achievements: One of the first French Impressionist painters
Born: November 14, 1840; Paris, France
Died: December 5, 1926; Giverny, France (Aged 86)
Field & Discipline: Art; Painter
Language: French
Father: Claude Adolphe Monet
Mother: Louise-Justine Aubry
Siblings: Leon
Spouse: 1) Camille Doncieux; 2) Alice Hoschede
Children: Jean-Amand-Claude; Michel
Education: Local secondary school, Le Havre
Major Work:
"Les Nymphaeas" series, inspired by his water lily garden at Giverny, France
Life & Times:
After Monet's mother died in 1857, his aunt encouraged him to be an artist. She owned a small studio where Monet painted and by the time he was 18, he was already selling his work. He was known particularly for his caricatures, but the Havre town council refused to grant him a scholarship because it felt he was not a serious artist.
Even before the Council made its decision, Monet had already left for Paris, where he became so taken with the "Barbizon" landscape painters -- who, to his amazement, painted outdoors -- and other avant-garde artists that he changed his mind about enrolling at the Ecole des-Beaux-Arts, the official arts academy.
Instead, with money from his father, he enroled in the Suisse studio, a liberal studio with no formal curriculum. [fellow-student was] Delacroix*, [fellow-student was] Corot* and [fellow-student was] Courbet* had all worked there, and [fellow-student was] Pissarro* was a fellow student. To make ends meet, Monet sketched the concierges in the area, and even sold a painting his aunt had lent him -- a work by Charles Daubigny, a Barbizon artist.
In 1861, at 21, Monet was called for army service, enlisting in a cavalry regiment that was being sent to Algeria. He had signed up for seven years, but in less than a year, he was sent home with typhoid. His aunt bought him out of the army.
After recuperating, in 1862 Monet returned to Paris where he also met artists [knew] Renoir* and Alfred Sisley. At a studio exhibition in 1865, two of Monet's relatively conventional seascapes were hung on either side of [he hung with] Manet*s nude "Olympia," which was the scandal of the show.
Monet was determined to eclipse Manet, and for the 1866 show he proposed to submit a huge work, painted outdoors as the Barbizons did, showing picnickers in the forest of Fontainebleau. He proposed to paint the figures life-size in natural light. But shortly before the show, he decided to submit two other pictures, which were well received. Monet, now 26, was gaining a reputation as a good Salon painter.
But he still wanted to create his large picture. He decided on a more modest effort, scaled down the size a little, and reduced the number of figures, but he still had an eight-foot canvas, which he called "Women in the Garden". The Salon rejected it outright in 1867.
Monet still continued to pursue his vision, working outdoors in Paris, Le Havre and other coastal sites like Honfleur and Trouville. His best known work from this period is "Terrace at Sainte-Adresse" (1867). It was a contemporary scene, and he made no attempt even to age the bricks of a newly-built wall. In 1868, he sold some pictures at an exhibition in Le Havre; those that were not sold were seized by creditors.
In the summer of 1869, Monet and Renoir, both living in cheap quarters outside Paris, painted outdoors together on the banks of the Seine. They set up their easels side by side at La Grenouillere, a fashionable picnic and bathing place. Intent on showing the everyday scenes of bathing and boating, they spontaneously began using a new painting technique: the brushstrokes became broader and shorter and the colors brighter and more pure. Monet's pictures were dominated more by water than figures, while Renoir's were the opposite.
The work of Monet and Renoir La Grenouillere is considered the birth of Impressionism. Light coming off the water, the movement and texture of the water, the different colors in the water were all to become trademarks of Monet's work.
In 1870, when war with the Prussians was imminent, Monet with his family to Trouville, which would allow a crossing to England if necessary. He painted on the beaches and produced works so spontaneously-done that there were bits of shell and sand embedded in the paint.
In the autumn, Monet took his family to live in London. After the war, in 1871, Monet spent several months near Amsterdam before returning to Paris. He painted windmills and boats on the canals and produced 24 works in four months. He then returned to Paris.
Between January and April of 1877, Monet painted 12 pictures of the Gare St. Lazare. Much of the painting was done in or near the station. The station-master was a model of cooperation. Trains were stopped, platforms were emptied and engines were stoked up to give out as much smoke as Monet desired. [a fan was] Zola*, reviewed the paintings at the third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877 and called them superb.
In 1878, Monet moved his family to Vertheuil on the Seine, further away from Paris. They shared a large house with Ernest Hoschede, a once-prosperous but now failed businessman, who earlier had employed Monet to provide decorative paintings for his chateau in the country. Hoschede's wife Alice already felt a kinship with Monet, and when Camille died in 1879, she and her six children moved in with Monet.
In 1883, Monet, his two sons and Alice and her children moved to a farmhouse at Giverny on the Epte river, some 50 miles from Paris. Through the 1880's, he painted in various locations in Normandy, Brittany and in the south of France at Menton and Antibes. He also went to Bordighera in Italy, and to the Netherlands to paint the tulip fields.
In 1899, Monet went to London and embarked on a series of paintings of the Thames, including the Houses of Parliament and the Waterloo and Charing Cross bridges. He completed the series in 1904.
Apart from doing a series of paintings in Venice in 1908 and 1909, Monet worked mostly out of Giverny, devoting his time to painting his garden. Between 1916 and 1925, he created a series of water-lily paintings, called "Nymphaeus", which are the most triumphant expression of his art.
Extra Connections: Influenced [influenced] Braque* and Debussy*
Clemenceau*?
He knew [knew] Valery*
[work bought by] Gauguin* bought his work
He met [met] Sickert*
Assessment: One of the artists who initiated the technique used in Impressionist art, Monet remained faithful to Impressionism throughout his painting career.
Oneliner: Claude Monet, early French Impressionist painter
Bibliography:
- Rachman, Carla, Monet, Phaidon Press Ltd., London, 1997.