Monet (Claude), French

The main founder of Impressionism, Claude Monet (1840-1926) is the painter of "Impression: Sunrise". In a disparaging article about the painting in 1874, and art critic wrote "A preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more finished than this seascape." The critic, Louis Leroy, is now only remembered as the French journalist who coined the term "impressionism". Monet, however, is probably the most collected artist in the world, and one of the most influencial. He painted more than 2,000 paintings in his lifetime. Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil, an 1873 oil painting by Monet, was purchased for a record $ 41.4 million at Christie's auction in New York on May 6, 2008.

Monet was born in Paris and raised in LaHavre, at the joining of the Seine River and the Atlantic Ocean. Landscapes of nature, the ocean and water would make up a large part of his paintings until his death at the age of 86. His father wanted him to go into the family grocery store business, but at the age of 10 or 11, he knew he wanted to be an artist. He sold charcoal caricatures for 10-20 francs (now 2-3 dollars) and gained popularity locally as an artist. His first drawing lessons were from a former student of Jacques-Louis David, but it was Eugene Boudin (also living in Le Havre) who taught him to paint "en plein air" at the age of 16 or 17. He painted outdoors for the rest of his life.

When Monet traveled to Paris to visit The Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old masters. Monet, having brought his paints and other tools with him, would instead go and sit by a window and paint what he saw. Monet was in Paris for several years and met several painters who would become friends and fellow impressionists. One of those friends was Édouard Manet.

He studied the works of John Constable and Joseph M. W. Turner in England, and made regular trips to Venice to paint. Monet's works explored the effects of light and atmosphere, and he is especially famous for the series of paintings Haystacks (scroll down), the Rouen Cathedral, and Water Lilies, (at his gardens in Giverny, where he spent his later years).

Monet developed a method to capture light in his paintings; he would work on each canvas for 1/2 hour or so before switching to another, "sometimes working on as many as ten or twelve paintings a day, each one depicting a slightly different aspect of light. The process would be repeated over the course of days, weeks, or months, depending on the weather and the progress of the paintings, until they were completed. As the seasons changed the process was renewed." wikipedia, dec.08

Monet's home in Giverny is now a world famous tourist attraction, and the gardens where he painted are still intact. In addition to souvenirs of Monet and other objects of his life, the home contains his collection of Japanese woodcut prints, a source of inspiration to most of the Impressionists. To view more of his work, see wikipedia images - Monet, (scroll down).