Famous French Impressionist, Claude Monet once said, "Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love." If the popularity of his paintings is any indicator, perhaps the world has learned that it is only necessary to love his work. The very name Monet evokes visions of dreamy images, water lilies of course, and perhaps weeping willows or poplars. He gave new meaning to color and light, especially in his "series" paintings which captured subjects like haystacks, the Houses of Parliament and the Rouen Cathedral, in addition to his beloved water lilies and garden at Giverny.
Monet's Life
On November 14, 1840, Monet was born in Paris, France, where his family lived until he was five years old. At that time, his father, a successful grocer, moved them to Le Havre, France. By all accounts, Monet loved his new life on the Seine Estuary. It was here that he first found the beginnings of his art through selling caricature portraits in the Marketplace. During this period, Monet met the painter, Louis Eugene Boudin, to whom he attributed his initial intrigue and later passion for art. When he was 19 years old, Monet traveled to Paris where he entered art school. After only a short period of study, he was called to war in Algeria. His military service was cut short by illness and he returned to Paris in 1862.
Two of his paintings of seascapes were admitted to the French Art Salon in 1865. Exhibiting in the Salon, the official art exhibition of the French learned society, the Academie des Beaux-Arts, was no small feat for even the most seasoned artist. The very next year, Monet submitted the now famous Lady in the Green Dress which he had painted in just four days and it was accepted and exhibited at the Salon. His relationship with the Salon would soon turn contentious as Monet began more and more to focus on painting in the style which became known as Impressionism.
In 1870, Monet married Camille Doncieux, his muse for the Lady in the Green Dress, with whom he already had a son. By 1876 she had become ill, their second son was born two years later and in September 1879 she died. They lived in abject poverty during this time of grieving. Faced with this plight, Monet determined he would not remain in this condition, so he began to paint more prolifically, focusing on his series paintings.
Monet was married again in 1892 to Alice Hoschede, who had been raising his children since the death of Camille. They eventually rented the now famous house in Giverny and as their finances improved, they were able to buy the house and gardens which he set out to enlarge and improve. Though he had traveled widely in search of scenes for his painting, this became the place he most loved to paint. Alice died in 1911 and her daughter took over the job of caring for Monet. Around this time he began to suffer from cataracts. As a result, his use of color changed as the progression of the cataracts changed what he was seeing. This is especially evident in his series of Weeping Willows. All the paintings done during this time have a reddish tone. After he had cataract surgery in 1923, he repainted some of the water lily pieces with their true bluer colors.
Before his death from lung cancer on December 5, 1926, he continued to work on the large water lily paintings that he called Grandes Decorations, which were eventually removed from their stretchers and affixed to the walls of the Orangerie of the Tuileries.
What is Impressionism?
Impression, Sunrise is the Monet painting that gave birth to the name of the art movement called Impressionism. The painting was part of the first group exhibit of the Impressionist artists. Of course, they were not called that until Louis Leroy wrote his satirical review, The Exhibition of the Impressionists, for the April 25, 1874, issue of Le Charivari. His derogatory word, Impressionists, was appropriated by the artists themselves and thus was born a movement. In addition to Monet, the original group of Impressionist painters included Alfred Sisley and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, along with several others.
Impressionism is still used when referring to the late 19th century art movement, but is also used today to describe the paintings done in the style to convey the impression of light. Impressionist painters seek to convey an overall impression of a scene, generally outdoors, using color, short brushstrokes and very little detail to give the appearance of reflected light. In an Impressionist painting, the artist aims to capture the perception of a subject as if a passerby caught just a glimpse of it. Paintings in this style have continued to enjoy popular acclaim, perhaps making Impressionism one of the most identifiable of all art movements.
A Selection of Monet's Paintings