Claude Monet – Field Of Tulips In Holland
Oscar-Claude Monet was a painter of French nationality who founded impressionist paintings. He was born on 14 November 1840 in Paris, France. When Monet was a child, he lived in Le Havre, in the French region of Normandy. And his interest in drawing and landscapes began at quite a young age. His mother, Louise-Justine Aubree Monet, approved of his passions, while his father, Claude-Adolphe, who wanted him to be a businessman, did not support his ambitions.
Claude Monet is regarded as the painter who heralded modernism. He primarily sought to paint nature the way he perceived it. Monet had a long career as a painter and was ultra-consistent. In his era, he was the most prolific practitioner of the philosophy of Impressionism, especially with regards to landscape painting (Plein air). Impressionism was made by art critic Louis Leroy, who described Monet’s painting Impression, Soleil levant as “monumental impressionism.”
Monet led a society of artists named ‘Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers. He admired the style and subject matter of Pissarro and Eduoard Manet, who were slightly older contemporaries. Monet’s most famous works include Nympheas (Waterlilies), Poplars, San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk, Impression, Sunrise, etc. Monet died in December 1926.
Monet Planted Water Lilies
In 1883, Monet began painting in the tiny village of Giverny, which is located downstream on the Seine from Paris. Then, in 1893, he purchased the ground in front of his house and turned it into a Japanese-style garden. Next, Monet created a large pond out of a little creek that ran through his land, which he filled with water lilies and bridged with a humpbacked bridge.
He created his final series, “The Water Lilies,” by lining the banks with willows and vegetation and retiring to this aquatic sanctuary separated from the outside world. On the other side of the garden, he created a glass-walled studio and set up a wheeled easel that he could freely move around.
In the morning, during the day, and into the night, he painted painting after painting of the pond’s changing images, its water lilies, and its reflections of light.
His pieces included depictions of the willows onshore, the humpback bridge, and the nighttime sky. However, he eventually narrowed his focus to the pond.
Monet’s life was marred by tragedy.
Despite his burgeoning fame, Monet struggled financially regularly. Monet became more frustrated with his financial condition in 1868, shortly after the birth of his first son Jean, and attempted suicide by jumping into the Seine.
Fortunately, he failed, but this would not be Monet’s last setback. Camille, his wife, became unwell during her second pregnancy in 1876. Then, in 1879, she died at the age of thirty-two.
It shows that despite his fame, he had to go through many challenging situations in his life that caused him a lot of heartaches. It makes it more impressive that he could surmount all of that and have a very successful and consistent career.
Monet served as a soldier in Algeria.
Monet was conscripted into the army in 1861. He was compelled to join the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry and left Paris for Algeria, which was then under French authority.
When Monet’s father offered to pay for his son’s discharge from the military, provided he promised not to paint any longer, Monet scoffed at the offer. As a result, Monet contracted typhoid disease after serving one year of his seven-year military duty. His aunt paid for his discharge from the army and put him at a Paris art school.
After this period, Monet’s art could be born, and he achieved his dream.
He didn’t intentionally name Impressionism.
Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cézanne were among the artists who joined Monet in creating a community of unhappy artists. In 1874, an exhibition was staged by the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, and other Artists.
The show included ground-breaking artwork with vibrant hues and unstructured, seemingly spontaneous brushwork. After a reviewer likened one of Claude Monet paintings, “Impression, Sunrise,” to an incomplete sketch (or “impression”), the word “Impressionists” was coined to characterize the painters who exhibited these dramatically different, new paintings.
His Second Wife was very Jealous of his First Wife
Camille Doncieux, a model who had been married to Monet since the mid-1860s, was a regular subject of Monet paintings (they married in 1870).
Camille died in 1879, possibly from uterine cancer, and the couple had two boys. After her husband’s business went bankrupt, Alice Hoschedé moved in with the Monets, and Monet may have begun an affair with her while Camille was still alive.
Hoschedé destroyed all of Camille’s letters and photographs after her death out of jealousy. Despite this, Hoschedé lived with Monet and his two children, and the couple married in 1892 after Hoschedé’s husband died. (Fun fact: one of Hoschedé’s daughters married one of his sons later in life.)
Monet often paid gardeners to dust his lilies.
Monet recruited six full-time gardeners as his garden grew. Each morning, one gardener paddled a canoe onto the pond, washing and dusting each lily pad.
After being cleaned, Monet began painting the lilies, trying to capture what he observed as the light reflected off the water. It seems nothing gave him more joy than painting his lilies repeatedly at the time.
The Bottom Line
Claude Monet was a man who lived an eventful life and chose to follow his ambition to be a painter, a choice for which he has become famous, even centuries after he lived. Monet paintings are such a rich collection and have influenced many painters in modern times. Monet’s art was marked with consistent excellence; however, it did not exempt him from having life challenges. However, he, despite them, excelled in his chosen field.