Oscar-Claude Monet (1840-1926), also called Claude Monet, is a French impressionist painter who was the initiator, leader, and unswerving advocate of the Impressionist style. In his later works, Monet developed the method of producing repeated studies of the same motif in series, changing canvasses with the light. These series were frequently exhibited in groups, for example, his images of haystack (1890-91), and the Rouen Cathedral (1894). It is a spectacular experience to know that Monet painted nearly 250 paintings in his ‘Water Lillies’ series.

Early Life

Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840. He was the eldest son of his parents. His parents moved to the city of Havre, Normandy, when he was five years of age. He spent his childhood along the beaches. He learned from his friends and nature itself. The knowledge he gained along the sea, its beaches, and the rapidly shifting Norman weather influenced his art greatly. It helped him to display his fresh vision of nature in his paintings. He made a significant contribution to impressionist painting of which he is said to be the founder.

Education

Monet did not receive formal education in art. Initially, as a teenager, he studied with a local artist, Jacques-Francois Ochard. Later, he became a friend of Eugene Boudin who introduced him to the art of painting in the open air. His refusal to join the Ecole des Beaux-Art became a subject of annoyance for his family.

Later on, Monet became famous for recording on-the-spot impressions that a momentary vision of the scene left in him. He made pencil sketches of sailing ships, which were almost technical in their clear descriptiveness. In the month of April 1851, Monet entered the Le Havre Secondary School of Arts. He became locally known for his charcoal caricatures which he was selling for 10 to 20 francs. Later under the informal tutelage of the master of the landscape painter, Johan Jongkind, he further honed his artistic skill. However, his life as a painter did not begin until he met Eugene Boudin who introduced him to the then uncommon style of painting in the open air. This experience set the direction for Monet’s next 60 years of his life as a painter.

Impressionist

Painting oil landscapes in studios had been in vogue since the 16th century. The process involved using recollections rather than direct impressions of the subject of the painting. In 1872, Monet painted a scene of the French port Le Havre, using very loose brush strokes, and named the picture ‘Impression‘. In this painting, Monet depicted mist for providing hazy background. He made brilliant use of colors to contrast with the darker objects in the picture, such as dark vessels floating on the water. He placed the picture in a month-long exhibition in 1874 along with the paintings of some of his friends, including Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, and Edgar Degas. These artists organized exhibitions on their own as Paris Salon usually rejected their paintings.

Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872) famous painting – Stretched Canvas

Presently, ‘Impression: Sunrise‘ is considered the most prominent and rated along with Van Gogh’s ‘Night Stars’.

Origin of Impressionism

Monet’s Impression, ‘Sunrise’ grabbed the most attention of the visitors. An art critic, M. Louis Leroy, who attended the exhibition wrote an article in which he used the term ‘Impressionist‘ based on the title of the painting. Though Leroy used this term derisively, other famous painters like Renoir and Degas felt happy to be called Impressionists. Thereafter, all these artists together came to be known as ‘Impressionists’ after the style newly introduced by Claude Monet into the world of art.

Claude Monet’s Seascape, Storm (1866) -Stretched Canvas

Claude Monet’s Grainstack, Sun in the Mist (1891) – Stretched Canvas

In this style of painting, artists painted pictures outside, ‘en Plein air`, a phrase in French that stands for open air. Experts say that in the impressionist style of painting, artists wanted to capture the fleeting moments of time in their canvasses.

Impressionist painting – a quick job

In Impressionist painting, ‘artists had to work quickly, using gestural brushstrokes of paint because the light conditions kept changing.’ Another famous painter of that period of time, John Singer Sargent’s, painting, ‘Claude Monet's Painting by the Edge of a Wood‘ (1885) provides an apt and ample definition of impressionist painting. In this painting, Claude Monet is seen painting a picture en Plein air, or in the open air. More often Monet’s subject matter involved domestic scenes featuring the members of his family and the garden. Some of his paintings, such as, On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt (1868), or The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) were clear indications of Monet’s advance toward the Impressionist style.

Water Lilies Series

Monet is famous for producing repeated studies of the same motif in series, changing canvasses with the light or his interest shifted. These series of paintings of one motif were exhibited in groups, for example, his images of Haystacks (1890-91), Rouen Cathedral (1894), and the Water Lilies Pond series. Claude Monet painted a series of pictures of ‘water lilies’ (1916) that were a part of the garden at his house in Giverny. This series of paintings have come to be called ‘abstract-impressionist paintings’, reportedly, because the surface of the pond fills the entire canvas with light and color and the picture looks almost abstract. Monet is said to have painted ‘water lilies’ in all seasons and in all weather for over 30 years.

Water Lilies (1919) by Claude Monet, high-resolution famous painting – Premium Framed Horizontal Poster

Painting in the midst of tragedy

One of these paintings made after the year 1918 was witness to a very sad time in Monet’s life. Not only his wife had died but also his son had been killed in the First World War. The fighting was so close to his house that he could hear the sound of guns from his garden. It is very tragically astonishing that he could paint such a soothing and beautiful picture when the tragedy had struck him personally. There was utter chaos all around him at that very moment. It was possible that drawing the placid pond with blooming water lilies should have soothed his nerves and made him happy in the midst of the tragic events.

Camille Pissarro and other contemporaries

Camille Pissarro was another great contemporary impressionist painter whose brilliance in this field of art could be gauged from his paintings ‘The Pork Butcher‘ (1883) and ‘The Little Country Maid‘ (1882). Berthe Morisot and Philip Wilson Steer are two of the other few noteworthy names of artists who have made their mark in this area of painting. Besides Claude Monet’s ‘Impression, Sunrise‘ (1872), ‘Poplars on the Epte‘ (1891), ‘Woman with a Parasol‘, ‘Poppies‘ (1873), ‘Water Lily Pond‘ (1899), ‘The Magpie‘ (1869), are other classic examples of the impressionist painting by Claude Monet.

End of happier days

Monet’s celebrated method of producing works in series of the same motif, each under different light and weather conditions, was fully implemented after the 1890s. In his painting, ‘Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare‘ he portrayed the train engine belching smoke and steam in the great shed. Monet’s life took a bad turn when he moved to Vetheuil, a place farther from Paris. In 1876, Monet developed a liaison with Alice Hoschede, the wife of a department store owner and collector. Monet had incurred a lot of debts in Argenteuil and Camille was pregnant and ill. Using funds from her dowry, she assumed Monet’s debts and card for his ailing wife who died in Sept 1879.

Final Years of Claude Monet

In 1883, Monet, Hoschede, her children, and Monet’s two sons settled at Giverny, a hamlet near Vernon, 52 miles from Paris. Here Monet purchased a farmhouse, which was to be his home until his death. He made several trips to London, between 1899 till 1904, in his search for new motifs and subjects for paintings. In 1893, Monet had bought a strip of marshland across the road from his house. He constructed a water lily garden by diverting a tributary of the Epte river. Soon clusters of lily pads, weeping willows, iris, and bamboo grew around the quiet water. A Japanese bridge closed the composition at one end. Monet made this piece of nature his subject for a series of around 250 paintings over the next 30 years of his life.

Claude Monet’s Poplars, Pink Effect (1891): Stretched Canvas

Claude Monet’s The Cliffs at Étretat (1885): Stretched Canvas

Claude Monet’s The Poppy Field near Argenteuil (1873) -  Stretched Canvas

Monet’s prominent impressionist paintings

Some of Monet’s prominent paintings include, San Giorgio Maggiore At Dusk, Irises In Monet’s Garden, Pathway in Monet’s Garden At Giverny, Argenteuil (Red Boats), The Walk Woman With A Parasol, Impression Sunrise, The Water Lily Pond Aka Japanese Bridge, The Garden At Argenteuil Aka The Dahlias, Boulevard Des Capucines, The Avenue, The Flowered Garden, Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, Camile Monet on a Garden Bench, Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert, etc.