Monet, Claude

Some of Claude Monet's paintings

Books about Claude Monet

Map of the whole site

Claude Monet a biography....

Born Nov. 14, 1840, Paris, Fr.--d. Dec. 5, 1926, Giverny
Claude Monet's family moved to Le Havre when he was ten. He began drawing as a caricaturist but was converted to landscape painting by Boudin from whom he gained a lasting love of painting out of doors.  In 1859 he studied in Paris (supported by a small allowance from his aunt) at the Atelier Suisse and formed a friendship with Pisarro. After military service in Algiers, he returned to Le Havre and met Jongkind to whom he said he owed `the definitive education of my eye'. 

In 1862 he entered the studio of Gleyre in Paris, there meeting Renoir, Sisley and Bazille with whom he was to form the nucleus of the Impressionist group. One of Monet's pictures--Impression: Sunrise--gave the group its name. 

During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he took refuge in England with Pissarro: he studied the work of Constable and Turner, painted London, and met the dealer Durand-Ruel, who was to become one of the great champions of the Impressionists. From 1871 to 1878 Monet lived at Argenteuil, a village on the Seine near Paris, and here were painted some of the most joyous and famous works of the Impressionist movement, not only by Monet, but by his visitors Manet, Renoir and Sisley. 

In 1878 he moved to Vétheuil and in 1883, to Giverny, also on the Seine, about 40 miles from Paris. After having experienced extreme poverty, Monet began to prosper. In 1892 he married his mistress, with whom he had begun an affair in 1876, three years before the death of his first wife.

 From 1890 he concentrated on series of pictures in which he painted the same subject at different times of the day in different lights---Haystacks (1890-91) and Rouen Cathedral (1891-95) are the best known. He continued to travel widely, visiting London and Venice several times (and also Norway), but increasingly his attention was focused on the celebrated water-garden he created at Giverny, which served as the theme for the series of paintings on Water-lillies that began in 1899 and grew to dominate his work completely (in 1914 he had a special studio built in the grounds of his house so he could work on the huge canvases).

In his final years he was troubled by failing eyesight, but painted until the end.  

Paintings/ posters by Claude Monet

Put the beauty of Monet on your walls

To look at, or buy (in your national currency), prints of these and many other of the artist's paintings, simply type 'Claude Monet' in the search box and click Go

Books

To find books about him in the U.K. please type his name in the box and press Go!