City and Country of Origin: Paris, France
Painting School: Impressionist
Art Training: Eugene Boudin in Le Havre; Swiss Academy, Paris; Studio of Gleyre with fellow students Alfred Sisley, Frederick Bazille and Auguste Renoir in Paris
Organizations: Impressionists
Awards:
Major Works: "Rouen Cathedral," "Haystacks," "Water Lilies," "Poplars"
Monet Biography: He was a prolific painter and along with Camille Pissarro the driving force behind the Impressionist movement. He was born in Paris the second son of a small businessman. When he was about the age of five, his family moved to the Norman port of Le Havre where his father took a position in a relative's wholesale business. It was here that young Oscar, that was his given name, first studied art at Le College du Havre under the tutelage of Francois-Charles Ochard once a student of David. Monet lost his mother when he was only seventeen years old. At this point relations between father and son became even more strained than normal with the young Monet leaving school before he received his baccalaureate against the advice of his father. It was at this time that the aspiring young artist leaned heavily on his aunt Mme. Lecadre for advice. She was an amateur painter who knew several successful painters with whom he corresponded with regularly. One of these artists was the well-known painter Armand Gautier who was a friend of Gustave Courbet helped convince Claude's father to allow the young Claude to continue his art studies. It was about this time that the young artist exploited his talents as a caricaturist selling his work to friends and personalities of the city. To accommodate his business the young artist made an arrangement with a local framer to display his work. It was here that Monet would meet the person who would have the greatest influence on his life as an artist, Eugene Boudin. Boudin was a local painter of modest seascapes who impressed on the young Monet the importance of working outdoors painting directly from life. He would stick to the advice given him in his youth by Boudin and was a plein aire painter throughout his lifetime. He used an extremely bright high keyed palette of the purest primary and complementary colors that he could find. Although he struggled financially in his early years he eventually found financial success particularly after 1890. Although he is associated mainly with the French Impressionist School of the nineteenth century it must be remembered that he lived and painted well into the twentieth century.
Died: December 5, 1926
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