One of the founding
fathers of French Impressionism Monet's concern was to
reflect the influence of light on a subject. He never
abandoned his Impressionist painting style until his
death in 1926 when Fauvism and Cubism were en vogue
and when abstract painting came into existence.
First Painting Lessons
Claude Monet was born in Paris, but grew
up in Le Havre. His first artistic output were
caricatures when he was a little boy. Close to his home
was a little shop owned by a marine painter, Mr. Eugene
Boudin. He recognized the talent of the boy and gave him
his first painting lessons.
Claude's family was not very happy about
his vocation for painting. In 1860 he was drafted and
had to go to Northern Africa for two years. After his
return from Africa he went to Paris and took painting
lessons at Gleyre's studio in Paris. At the studio he
got to know
Auguste Renoir, Sisley, Bazille and others. The
nucleus of the future Impressionist movement was born.
Painting en
plein air
Soon Monet turned away from the
traditional style of painting inside a studio. With his
new friends he went outside in the Fontainebleau forest
to paint in the open air. But the public and art critics
ridiculed these new paintings that looked so different
from any conventional art style.
In a caricature published in a
newspaper, they were mocked with the proposal of chasing
away the Prussian enemy by showing them Impressionist
paintings - not very nice! When the Franco-Prussian war
of 1870/71 broke out, Monet chose to go to London with
his friend Pissarro. There he saw the paintings of
William Turner in the museums of London.
The House in
Giverny
After 1880 the public slowly begun to
recognize the value of
impressionism. Monet Claude and his friends could
finally get some solid income from the sales of their
paintings. In 1883 Monet rented a house in Giverny about
50 kilometers outside of Paris. Later, in 1890, he
bought the house where he should stay until his death in
1926.
Claude Monet and
Serial Paintings
In 1890 Monet began to paint
systematically the same subjects under different light
conditions. The first subject were the haystacks behind
his house. As the light changed during the day faster
than he could paint, he worked simultaneously on several
canvases. At the end he had painted 25 different
versions of the hay stacks.
More of the series paintings followed -
the Rouen Cathedral, views of Venice or the Thames in
London with the Houses of Parliament and other landmarks
in London - often in the fog. When he painted in London
in 1899 he said:
"Without the fog, Londong would not
be a beautiful city."
And at another occasion, Monet put the
quintessence of his art philosophy into the following
sentence:
"I want the unobtainable. Other
artists paint a bridge, a house, a boat, and that's
the end. They are finished. I want to paint the air
which surrounds the bridge, the house, the boat, the
beauty of the air in which these objects are
located, and that is nothing short of impossible."
Claude Monet Water
Lilies
In his late years Claude Monet suffered
from physical problems. After 1907 a bad eyesight and
rheumatism made it more and more impossible for him to
paint. But he continued until the year of his death. The
great project over the last years was centered around
his garden with a pond of water lilies and a Japanese
bridge. He had even constructed a studio in his garden,
so that he could paint more easily without being exposed
to the weather outside.
In February 1926, at the age of 83, he
could finish the last great challenge of his life - a
commission by the French government for 22 mural
paintings of water lilies. On December 5, 1926 Claude
Monet died from lung cancer. |