Oscar-Claude Monet (1840-1926)
On November 14, 1840 Oscar-Claude Monet became the second son of Mr. Claude-Adolphe and Louis-Justine Aubrée Monet, in Paris, France. Living in the ninth arrondissement of Paris, the Monet family moved to a nearby town called La Havre when he was five. Monet's father found work in the family grocery and ship supply business with his brother, and his mother was noted as an amateur painter. While living in La Havre, Monet was known as an undisciplined student, lacking an interest in school and was predicted to become unproductive. Not wanting to work in the family business, Monet began sketching caricatures of prestigious politicians and recieved his first commission at the age of 15.
Eugène Boudin, a landscape painter, had a major influence on Monet during his teenage years. Boudin offered to tutor Monet but Monet abstained several times before finally taking him up on his offer, and produced one of his first paintings two years later, View of Rouelles. In 1859, Monet decided to further pursue his interest in painting, and left for Paris's Academie Suisse, an informal art school. A short three years later, the National Service called Monet to arms in the renowned regiment Les Chaussures d'Afrique in Algeria. Monet's contraction of typhoid fever led to the release from serving his full five year military duty. With his family's support, he left Africa excused on sick leave on the condition of finishing a formal art course. Never enrolling in the formal l'Ecole des Artistes, Monet dropped the first part of his name, Oscar, and secured a position in Charles Gleyre's studio class. This moderate class attracted a diversity of people and was the start of the relationships between Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille, the start of the first group of impressionists.
Often meeting with his newfound friends, or his old time tutor, Boudin, Monet was trying to become a distinguished painter through his accepted paintings into the gallery "Salon," but was rejected most of the time. He was often criticized for his "unfinished" paintings and his rough brushstrokes which created an uneven surface. Continuing a relationship with his pregnant future, first wife (married in 1870), Monet painted a full length picture of Camille Doncieux in a popular pose which attracted numerous attention. Painting realistically, Claude had an eye for detail and liked to contrast light and dark, focusing on external light and even refusing to paint if the lighting wasn't up to his standards.
The Franco-Prussian War broke out and not wanting to get involved in the war, Monet left for London, being exposed to two English masters by the name of Constable and Turner. This had helped in greatly and furthered his steps to becoming economically stable. In the early 1870's, Monet returned to La Havre where he painted his most famous piece of art work, Impression:Sunrise, after which the style of his painting was named. He then returned back to Paris and rented a house nearby at Argenteuil where the Monet family would stay for the next six years. Monet painted an average of 170 paintings at Argenteuil making approximately 14,000f per year ($2800 per year). This gave him more time to enjoy the things he loved most: gardening, Camille, and his son Jean. This, as we know it, was the height of Impressionism. In 1874 Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, and Manet, a long time critic of Monet's work, helped produce a renowned exhibition of Impressionism. This event turned into an instant disaster, dwindling Monet's name and pushing him into a financial security loss. Desperate, Claude Monet sold his paintings to Hotel Drouot with marked down prices.
Monet wanted to leave the once beautiful country-town of Argenteuil because it was turning into an industry town. This caused an idle period in Monet's production after the Saint-Lazare Station series. Monet found a subtle town called Vétheuil which wasn't far off from the Seine river and Paris. Still in poverty, Camille became ill and died on September 5, 1879, from a problem in her uterus a year after the birth of their second son, Michel. After her death, Claude's eyes opened to the changing of colors and expressed it in his paintings. Being a parent of two young children was a difficult job, so Claude opened his home to a friend, Ernest Hoschedé, who had lost everything to bankruptcy. Monet and his two sons had to live with their gardener, the cook, the maid and Ernest, his wife, and five daughters. Ernest soon left his family for Paris in 1876 and Monet established a romantic relationship with Alice Hoschedé who had nursed Camille with her sickness.
In 1883 the combined families moved to Giverny, where Monet rented a house that was perfect, "everything he ever wanted." Not content with his securities, Monet traveled to Dieppe, Pourville, and Varengeille and brought back about forty-five canvases. By 1890 Monet bought more property and made the famous gardens of today. Two years later, Claude would finally marry his mistress Alice Hoschedé after the death of her husband. By this time, The Impressionists were going their separate ways. Monet would travel many places for the next ten years painting his obsession with changing light, and trying to establish his stability, a prestigious name, and a spot in the Salon.
By 1895, Monet now made over 200,000f ($40,000) instead of his usual 14,000f and went through another dormancy period. By the late 1890's, Claude Monet settled down to the domains of his gardens, but wouldn't allowed them to be seen until late 1909. He used his profits to buy more land, build studios and to spend on his children and stepchildren. Claude went through another tragic illness with Alice; she had myeloid leukemia and died on May 1, 1911. His oldest son, Jean was diagnosed with syphilis, contracted in late 1880's from the army, and soon lost his mind. To make matters worse, Claude lost his eyesight in his right eye to a cataract and only had ten percent visibility in his left. His eye sight reappeared and disappeared for the next decade in while he was experimenting with special glasses until he received two operations in 1922. Everything was deteriorating for Claude Monet; he lost his sight of the colors of nature but determined not to give up until he had absolutely had to. On December 5, 1926, Oscar-Claude Monet died of pulmonary sclerosis, with his death the world had lost a valuable impressionist painter.
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