Claude Monet was born November 14, 1840 and died December 5, 1926. Monet spent his youth in the coastal port of Le Havre where his family ran a successful business supplying sundries for ships. Their household was often a destination for parties, concerts, and other social gatherings for the affluent noveau-riche. By around age fifteen, Claude Monet had begun to develop his artistic talents and made a modest living, for a teenager, by drawing caricatures and selling them at a local general shop called Gravier’s. It was in the shop that he met Eugéne Boudin who would greatly influence the methodology Monet would use during the greater part of his life (Roe 10-12). This style, plein-air, which translates into “open air” is one in which the artist paints outdoors and typically focuses on naturalistic themes, with or without the intrusion of people (often, paintings in the Impressionist style that grew out of this school of thought would incorporate imagery of people dressed for a weekend in the countryside.)
Tragedy struck in 1857 when Monet’s mother died; much of the light and mirth of the Monet household faded as a result of her passing. Monet dropped out of school sometime in either 1855 or 1857 and often trekked about Le Havre while working on his painting and other art. By his own admission, he, like most of the artistic circle he was later to find, was a poor student:
“No one was ever able to make me stick to the rules, not even in my youngest days. It was at home that I learned most of what I do know. I equated my college life with that of a prison and I could never resolve to spend my time there, even for four hours a day when the sun was shining bright, the sea was so beautiful and it was so good to run along the cliff-tops in the fresh air or frolic in the sea.” ~ Claude Monet, 1900 from an interview in Le Temps Newspaper.
His Aunt Lecadre convinced his father to allow the teenage Monet move to Paris, so long as he agreed to resume his art studies there at one of the Academies. After struggling for months, he finally began to attend the Académie Suisse. The school’s lax regulations on attendance, supervision, and a general tendency to allow students to find their own methods proved to be a very good fit for Claude (Roe 10-12). During this same time period, he met Camille Pissarro, who later, along with Manet, Morisot, Cassatt, Cezanne, Renoir, Sisley, Degas and many others, would later be regarded as the vanguard of the Impressionist style. http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_165.html
The style’s name is derived from one of Monet’s paintings, Impression –Sunrise (1872) which was displayed in an exhibition in 1874 organized by the Société Anonyme des Artistes. The group, co-founded by Monet, was a reactionary movement against what was felt to be a stagnant period of Parisian art dominated by traditional themes and styles. The Salon de Paris, the principle art show in Paris, personified their frustration. The showing itself would run 8 times in all, over a 12 year span starting in 1874. It was an attempt to revive the old Salon des Refuses, wherein which artists who were refused by the formal Salon would showcase their works. The name Impressionism was adopted after a savagely critical, satirical article by critic Louis Leroy was published in the wake of the first exhibition of the Société Anonyme des Artistes. He focused on the title of Monet’s painting in much of his diatribe and thus unwittingly coined the term that would follow many of these artists for nearly two centuries.
Over the rest of his life, Monet who is often thought of as one of the more technically focused Impressionists, revised his style. One of the hallmarks of his style is the application of paint with very little mixing on the canvas. This lends a very vibrant quality, wherein colors are laid next to one another rather than being mixed and muddled to create gradation of hue. Paintings were often rapidly made, trying to show merely a fleeting glimpse or the base essence of a scene rather than to try to capture realistic detail. This placed the artists directly at odds with the mainstream of the time which still had a great fondness for techniques employed from the Renaissance onward, such as Chiaroscuro.
Later in life, Monet struggled with his health, especially his eyesight. Around the turn of the 20th century, he began working on his famous Water Lilies series that was painted around his home in Giverny. Around 250 of these were done, in all. Each of the paintings depicts his view of the pond around his home, and for the latter 40 years or so of his life, nearly everything he painted, including his Haystacks series from the 1880’s and 90’s, were within a walking distance from Giverny.
Roe, Sue. The Private Lives of the Impressionists. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Thiébault-Sisson, “My History” Le Temps 26th Nov. 1900. Translated by Louise McGlone. Retrieved electronically from
http://www.intermonet.com/biograph/autobigb.htm on 11th Feb. 2009.
The significance of Monet’s painting Impression Sunrise, dated 1872 is that it directly led to the labeling of the Impressionist Movement. Other artists were also using this style but this painting gave the style a name. The painting is unique for a couple reasons. First, all Impressionist paintings are unique because they use landscapes and sunlight. If Monet were to paint this on a different day or time of the year, the painting could be very different. A second reason is that if another Impressionist artist painted the same scene under the same conditions, the painting would likely not be the same. We chose this piece because it led to the labeling of the movement.
The significance of Monet’s Le Bassin Aux Nymphéasv, dated 1919 is that it is part of his beloved Water Lilies series. This series was treasured by Monet and he kept almost all of them. He had a private pond that was maintained specifically for making these works. This painting is unique because although he made numerous paintings of water lilies, this is one of only a few large-scale pieces Monet ever painted. We chose this one because when it auctioned at Christie’s last year it set an auction record for Monet.
The significance of Monet’s Haystacks, (Midday), dated 1890-1891, is that it is part of a series of paintings that shows the variations associated with weather and time of day and year. This painting is unique because of the difficulty in capturing this moment in time. Monet painted numerous haystacks, each different. Since lighting and seasons don’t stand still, this piece required immense patience, skill, and effort. We chose this work because it is from his famous Haystack series.
