Claude Monet

Background

Claude Monet was born in Paris, France. His father ran a grocery business that young Monet was expected to run when he grew up. However, he had ambitions to become a painter. Monet met painter Eugene Boudin and was taught how to paint with oil paints. Boudin was the one who encouraged Monet to paint outside — something that eventually became a fixture of Monet’s work.

At the age of 20, Monet joined the French Army for two years and was stationed in Algeria. By 1862, however, he fell ill and left the army to study art. He found that he disliked how art was taught at university and joined a painter named Charles Gleyre in his studio. This phase in his career led him to meet Camile Doncieux, who worked as his model. They had a child together in 1866 and married four years later. The same year, Monet and his family moved to England to escape the ravages of the Franco-Prussian War. He went on to have two more children with Doncieux. In 1879, Doncieux passed away from tuberculosis. A woman by the name of Alice Hoschede decided to help the painter by taking care of his children. In 1883, Monet moved his family to a home in Giverny. Monet married Hoschede in 1892.

Monet planted a garden in his Giverny house and later found that it inspired him to paint pictures of it — specifically his water lilies. Monet used broad brush strokes to create his work. He painted swiftly so that he was able to capture the lighting of the scene. In his later paintings, he would often paint the same subjects in different lighting.