Claude Monet 1

Claude Monet

A Report Of Claude Monet

Jordan Norman

Salt Lake Community College

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Oscar Claude Monets beginnings were humble and unassuming, but he became one of

the most famous painters in history. His creations can reside in many of the most esteemed

museums around the globe. Monets adult life was tumultuous, to say the least, but his lasting

mark in history will be the Impressionist movement, at which he was at the forefront.

Monets History

Monet was born in Paris, France on November 14, 1840, to Adolphe and Louise Monet.

In 1845, he moved to a small port town called Le Havre in Normandy with his parents and his

older brother, Leon. At an early age, it became apparent that Monet loved to draw, and began

signing his caricatures as Claude. He would turn his teachers into caricatures in his schoolbooks.

At the time caricatures being a prevalent form of social commentary and political satire. The

young boys mother and aunt were supportive of his artistic talents; unfortunately, his father

disapproved. Adolphe tried to pressure Monet to pursue business. Oscar was devastated when his

mother passed away in 1857.

Monet kept honing his artistic ability. His caricatures of his neighboring townspeople

became quite popular. When he was eighteen, he met a man named Eugene Boudin. Eugene was

a landscape artist who persuaded Monet to explore art in a different way. Plein air painting, or

painting outdoors, ended up becoming a foundation of Monets creations.

Oscar Claude Monet moved to Paris, France in 1859 to focus on his art, where he

enrolled at the Academie Suisse. In 1861, Monet was enlisted in the military and sent to Algeria,

but health complications discontinued his service. He returned to Paris and began studying with

Charles Gleyre. During this time, he befriended many likeminded artists such as Johan Jongkind

and Camille Pissarro. Many were landscape painters disenchanted with the classical masterpieces
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of previous eras. Together they honed their skills and began creating a new artistic movement,

yet unnamed.

Monets love of plein air painting never faltered. In 1865, he gained acceptance to the

Salon, a judged art show held in Paris. With two of his paintings chosen he received much praise.

The same year, he met Camille Doncieux, born in 1847, who was the subject of a portrait which

was accepted by the Salon the following year in 1866 (Kalitina, N.N., Brodskala, N.V., Monet,

Claude, 2011). She began modeling for him, and as with many an artist and model, he fell in

love. Unfortunately, Camille was of a lower social class than Monets family, so they opposed

the relationship. Monet loved her intelligence as well as her beauty. He vehemently wanted her

as his wife.

In 1867, as Camille was about to give birth to their first child, a son they would name

Jean, Monets father forced him to spend the summer with his aunt at Sainte-Adresse to keep he

and Camille apart. At the time, Adolphe was supporting Oscar financially and threatened to

withdraw his aid. Monet developed an anxiety disorder which caused him to begin losing his

vision, and in 1868 he attempted suicide by drowning himself in the Seine River. Luckily his

attempt failed, and he found a doctor in Le Havre who would treat him.Thankfully, the two

lovers found a financial reprieve when Louis-Joachin Guadibert became Monets patron. The

money he earned from the sale of his pieces to the man allowed Monet to continue painting and

keep his family afloat.

In 1870, Monet and Doncieux married. July 19, 1870, marks the beginning of the Franco-

Prussian War. When the war broke out, Oscar, Camille, and their son, Jean, fled to London,

England. Monet met a man named Paul Durand-Ruel, and he became his first art dealer. The war

waged until May of 1871, during which the Monet family stayed in England.
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In 1872, after the war was over, they returned to France. They settled in an industrial

town to the west of Paris, called Argenteuil, where Monet began developing his technique. While

there, correspondence with Monets friends, such as Pissarro and Manet, who, Monet stated in a

later interview, hated him at first because people mistook their names. They formed the Socit

Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, and began exhibiting their works together

to separate themselves from the Salon.

The Birth of Impressionism

The Impressionist revolution truly began in 1874. The Society held an exhibition in April

of that year, where Monet debuted Impression, Sunrise (1872). The piece depicts the harbor at

Le Havre in morning fog. Initially intended as an insult, a critic used the title to label the artists

Impressionists, saying their pieces were more equated to sketches than finished works.

The so-called affront seemed a fitting term, and Monet pursued recreating the essence of

the natural world. The Impressionists turned their backs on the blending and evenness that

classical art embodies. Monet also began incorporating the element of industry into his pieces,

which contemporized them and made them more modern. He joined the Impressionists after that

first show in 1874 and continued exhibiting with them well into the 1880s.

Following the Impressionist Revolution

Turbulence began to rear its ugly head in Monets home life. During her second

pregnancy, Camille became ill. Though, it is unclear whether she contracted tuberculosis or

developed pelvic cancer. Their second son, Michel was born in 1878, but Camilles condition

continued to wane. Their small family went to live with Ernest and Alice Hoschede and their

children before Camilles eventual passing. On her death bed, Monet painted a final portrait of
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his beloved wife. Following the tragedy, Monet painted what is known as the Ice Drift series. A

chilling set of paintings depicting ice floes in a winter river.

Alice and Monet grew ever closer following the death of Camille. Eventually began

having an affair, as Ernest spent most of his time in Paris. Ernest and Alice never divorced, but

Monet, Alice, and the eight children between them, respectively, moved to Giverny, in 1883.

Monet and Alice married in 1892 following the death of her husband.

Monets artistic career gained much momentum during the late 1880s and 1890s. He

began working on what would be known as the serial paintings. Giverny gave him all the

opportunity he could hope for to paint outdoors. His fondness for the waterlilies in the pond

inspired him to paint several sets of them throughout the years until he died.

Monet became a man entranced by light. The effects it created influenced him to create

many versions of the same landscapes with varying levels of light and color. He rented a room

across from the Rouen Cathedral and painted a repetitive series with variations of light ranging

from early morning to gray weather. His fascination with light was not limited to the cathedral.

Monet painted many repeated pieces. He became a man, seemingly, obsessed with embodying a

sensation of light through his canvas.

In 1911, Alice passed away, and Monet became depressed. In 1912 he began developing

cataracts. The impressionists were being pushed aside in the art community by the avant-garde

and cubist movements led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Monets popularity held,

though. The Orangerie des Tuileries, a Parisian museum, commissioned a final series of twelve

waterlily paintings. He designed them to fill the walls. The paintings were massive, and he

wanted them to serve as a haven of peaceful meditation.

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The enormous water lilies took years; they became an obsession for him. By now,

Monets eyes were both nearly blinded by cataracts, and in 1923 he underwent surgery to correct

them. In his later years, he continued his struggle with depression. Despite that, he kept painting

until he died on December 5, 1926, at his Giverny home, which has held the Claude Monet

Foundation since 1980. Monet and the other Impressionists opened the mind of the art world

with their foray into abstraction. This progress allowed artists like Mark Rothko and Jackson

Pollack to take the concepts even further. Monet helped unburden the future by casting off past

mentalities.
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Personal Impressions

Before this course, I had never really paid much attention art. I have always found it

beautiful, but I had not perceived a level of depth. Researching the history of a particular artistic

era, and the different mindsets that inspire a painter to create a work of art made it truly

fascinating. Focusing on Monets life, and the things he was going through when he created

individual sets gives them so much more meaning.

The first portrait Monet painted of his first wife, Camille (The Woman in the Green

Dress) is beautiful. The texture in the folds and wrinkles in the skirt look tangible. The level of

detail seems painstaking. The focus he must have had made me believe that he had already

become entranced by her.

Following Camilles death, the ice drift series is equally as chilling as the aforementioned

painting is beautiful. No matter the light effect he chose to capture, the depth of his sadness emits

from them all.

However, I consider Oscar Claude Monets magnum opus to be the Nymphas. The sheer

scale is impressive, but the number of them is astonishing. Two hundred and fifty in total, all

playing upon varying degrees of light and color.

Monet dedicated a lifetime to the pursuit of his passion. His obsession with the effects of

light and color helped pave the way for other abstract artists to explore and succeed. Without the

perseverance of the Impressionist movement, artists like Picasso, and Braque would have seen

much less success.

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Works Cited

Kalitina, N. N., Brodskaiaia, N. V., & Monet, C. (2011). Claude Monet. [New York]: Parkstone

International.