About Claude Monet

Oscar-Claude Monet, was a French Impressionist Painter who lived between 1840-1926. He was born in Paris France and is considered one of the forefathers of the painting style Impressionism and of the technique of plein-air painting. In fact, the term Impressionism was derived from one of his paintings “Impression, Soleil Levant” which translates to Impression, Sunrise.

About Claude Monet

Monet’s early art career was boosted by his success as a caricature artist in which he did quite well. In 1862, disillusioned with traditional art schools, Monet became a student of Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley. Together they shared new approaches to art, painting the effects of light en plein air with broken color and rapid brushstrokes. This technique later became known as Impressionism.

During this early period, Monet painted many landscapes, some of which included his wife, Camille. When the Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870, Monet and his family moved briefly to England and later to the Netherlands where he worked prolifically producing 25 paintings. Upon returning to France, Monet moved to Argenteuil where many of his famous landscapes were done.

Because the impressionists were rejected by the Salon in Paris Monet helped organize the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. Some 165 works were displayed including those by Renoir, Degas, Pissaro and Cézanne. As this new style of painting gained acceptance Monet’s financial situation improved, however, in 1879 Camille died and Alice Hoschedé and her children moved in to help him raise his 2 sons. After moving several times Monet discovered Giverny in Normandy and rented the house and gardens which he would eventually purchase.

Monet began developing cataracts around 1914 which gradually affected his painting style and use of color. In 1923, he underwent two operations to remove his cataracts which may have made it possible that he was able to see certain ultraviolet wavelengths of light which are normally excluded by the lens of the eye. This new-found vision affected the colors in his later works, and he even repainted some of his earlier pieces with bluer water lilies than before.

Monet passed away at the age of 86 in 1926 and left his estate to his remaining son, Michel who donated it to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1966. Giverny is now home to the Museum of Impressionism where thousands visit and tour his beautiful garden each year.

Our article on Monet and this painting was sourced from https:WikiArt.org, https://en.wikipedia.org and https://www.moma.org