Looking Into Claude Monet S Life and Work in France

Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840, in Paris, France and he died on December 5, 1926. Though his father wanted him to go into business, his mother believed in his artistic abilities and backed him up. He had a remarkable career in art although he did have setbacks. This paper reviews his life and his skills as an artist. The Young Claude Monet It is clear from several biographies of Monet that he really didn't show a lot of interest in academics, and he wasn't very fond of classroom situations.

In 1845 (he was 5 years old) Monet and his family moved to Le Have, a town by the Atlantic Ocean in the Normandy region of France. The ocean was a draw for him -- "He was more interested in being outside" than inside studying -- and his talent began to be shown when he drew caricatures of his teachers in his schoolbooks (biography.com). Author Sean Connolly writes in his book, Claude Monet, that Monet's aunt saw his caricatures of teachers and friends and strongly suggested he " ..

study drawing with a local artist," which ultimately can be seen as his "entrance into the world of fine art" (Connolly, 2004). He moved to Paris to get deeper into painting in 1859; he enrolled in Academie Suisse where he met fellow painter Camille Pissarro. From 1861 to 1862 Monet served in the French military but was given an honorable discharge for health reasons, and he returned to Paris where he met Auguste Renoir. His big break was in 1865, when he " .. won acceptance to the Salon," and showed two of his paintings (biography.com).

Things did not go well for Monet even though his artwork was beginning to be recognized; he married a much younger woman, Camille Doncieux, who also served as a muse and a subject for him to paint. Their son Jean was born in 1867, which should have been a happy time, but Monet " .. was in dire financial straits" and his father refused to help him financially which hurt as well.

He was so depressed about the lack of finances, he tried to drown himself in the Seine River, but, in hindsight, fortunately he failed in his suicide attempt (biography.com). Meanwhile after the high democratic hopes of the 1848 Revolutions " .. had been shattered," Monet at that time was nonetheless disinterested in getting involved in politics (Kalitina, et al., 2012). Yes, he was living in the era of Napoleon III and Napoleon's "unshakeable Second Empire" -- which was supported by a " ..

bourgeoisie thirsting for wealth and luxury" -- but Monet was more interested in his genre paintings than " .. the struggles of the nation" (Kalitina, 12). Kalitina notes in her book Claude Monet that by the early 1870s, Monet was making a transition from Impressionism vis-a-vis figures, to landscapes; after a long interruption in his work (due to the Franco-Prussian War) Monet "discovered the miracles of color"; he loved the Seine River enough to built a " .. floating studio boat for himself" allowing him to paint from the "middle of the river" (Kalitina, 13).

Interestingly, while his earlier poor financial situation thrust him into a deep enough depression to want to take his life, in the late 1890s he was known as " .. the greatest French painter of the century" and because he was " .. very astute at marketing both himself and his work," he amassed " .. a very considerable fortune, augmenting his income from the sale of his pictures by playing the stock.