Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) French Impressionist painter

Monet (1840-1926) was the founder, leader and unwavering advocate of the Impressionist painting movement.

After Monet exhibited "Impressionism: Sunrise" in 1874, critics commented on the movement in newspapers under the title "Exhibition of the Impressionists", hence the name. In 1888 the critic Fénieux wrote: "The word Impressionism was coined for him, and the term was more suitable for him than for anyone else."

"Impression: Sunrise"

Claude Monet was born in Paris and moved with his family to the port city of Le Havre in northwestern France at the age of 5. From an early age, Monet showed an extraordinary talent for painting, learning to paint from a local artist at the age of 15. His artistic career began when he met E-Boudin and began painting outdoors. At the age of 16, he was already able to sell paintings for money, when his paintings were posted on the doorstep of the port painting shop and sold for 20 francs each.

Monet self-portrait

In 1859, Monet came to Paris and met three like-minded friends - Renoir, Sisley, and Bazir. Led by Monet, they often went to the forests of Fontainebleau to sketch together. Later, the emergence of the External Light School, or Impressionism, was the result of their joint efforts. He was deeply influenced by the Barbizonne painters Dubini and Tevaron. Monet's work was mainly landscape, but his two characteristic huge portraits, "The Woman in Green" and "The Woman in a Kimono", were modelled by a woman named Camus. Camus was Monet's beloved wife and his favorite model.

In 1866, Monet fell in love with 19-year-old Camus and lived together, but his father opposed their union and cut off financial support for him, causing Monet's life to fall into a desperate situation. The embarrassment of life did not separate the lovers, but stimulated the artist's passion. In the same year, Monet completed "Woman in Green" with Camus as the main character. This work, which took just four days to complete, made Monet selected for the 1866 Salon Exhibition and was well received. It was not until 1870, when Monet was 30 years old, that he obtained his father's consent to formally marry Camus, when their eldest son John was born.

1865-1870 1989 was the early days of Monet's creation. Before this, he had begun to paint with the fragmented brushstrokes characteristic of Impressionism, such as "Picnic"(1865-1866) and "The Balcony of Saint Adrias". Monet's creative purpose is mainly to explore ways to express nature, recording the instant sensation and impressions and what he saw that was full of vitality and movement. He paints objects as flat color patterns without paying attention to their weight and volume. In 1868, he created the first Impressionist works with Renoir and Brival, which depict outdoor light, movement and moments with strong broken brushstrokes.

Around 1872, he became interested in Japanese printmaking, and its decorative and planarity had a great influence on modern French painting. In the 1875 painting "The Woman Holding the Parasol", Camus appeared with his son John. From the perspective of looking up, her posture of leaning half-on-side is particularly vivid and touching. The sun shone on her white dress and the grass under her feet, while the white gauze floating gently around her face and the rotating skirt showed the caressing of the wind.

In 1878, it was a gloomy year in Monet's life. His sponsor, Odyssey, went bankrupt, and the family left Paris because of the difficulties of life. In 1879, Monet became so embarrassed that he could not participate in the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition. Camus died prematurely of cancer in September of that year. After Camus's death, Monet officially married his sponsor's ex-wife, Alice, in 1892. In Monet's later works, Alice and her daughters appeared, and in these works, the faces of the figures were so blurred that they seemed to be Camus's figure, and they carried the painter's mourning. In the years after 1880, Monet made the final interpretation and confirmation of Impressionism, insistently pursuing the harmony and integrity of light and air.

One of the "Poplar Tree" series of paintings

In the early 1870s, he went to London and painted canals, ships, and windmills in the Netherlands. He also painted "Impression: Sunrise" in Le Havre. After returning home, he lived in Argenteuil. This period was also the peak of the Impressionist movement. The works created by Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Pissarro between 1872 and 1875 were the most attractive works of Impressionism. In 1883, Monet settled in Giverny until his death. After the 1990s, he concentrated on completing a series of consecutive paintings, such as: Poplar (1890-1891), Haystacks (1889-1893), Rouen Cathedral, Sunset (1894), and Morning on the Seine (1896-1897).

One of the series of paintings "Morning on the Seine"

In 1890, Monet transformed Giverny into a water lily garden. He painted "Water Lilies" here for 20 years. Later, it developed into a large circular mural in 1925, which was placed in two 80-foot-long oval halls in the Palais de Oranges in Sillery, Paris. It was exhibited to the public in 1971. In his later years, he continued to explore nature despite eye diseases until his death in 1926.

On December 5, 1926, Monet passed away at his home in Giverny at the age of 86. In his life, Monet painted the ultimate description of the beauty of light. It was the light of life that transcended the worldly levels of light and color and sublimated to the realm of ethereal spirit. It was separated from the barriers of the body and spirit and was eternal and freely flowing.

Main works include: "The Balcony of St. Adelias" (1866, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), "Women in the Garden" (1866-1867, in the collection of the Louvre Museum), "The River" (1868, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago), "Impression: Sunrise" (1872, in the collection of the Mamotan Museum in Paris), "Paris Saint-Lachar Railway Station" (1877, in the collection of the Fog Museum of Art at Harvard University), "Haystack" (1891, in the collection of the Chicago Institute of Arts) and "Water Lilies" (1906-1926, in the collection of the Paris Tennis Court).