Claude Monet is a pioneering artist in the Impressionist era, who painted over 2000 paintings in his lifetime with the help of groundbreaking techniques of using light in landscape paintings.

The most expensive painting by Claude Monet

His Haystack and Water Lilies series are the two biggest themes that use the same setting and explore its interaction with light through the passage of time (hours, days, weeks and months). One of the paintings from the Haystack (1890) series was sold for a new record of US$110.7 million that was ever paid for a painting in the New-York auction in 2019. Previous owners had paid US$2.5 million in 1986, making its value go up 44 times.

Charles Gleyre Studio and the beginning of the Impressionist Movement

The famous impressionist artists such as Auguste Renoir, Frederic Bazille, Alfred Sisley, and former graduate Edouard Manet, who were the contemporaries of Claude Monet, all studied in the Gleyre studio and became close friends and allies. They shared the same vision of depicting real life in their paintings in contrast to the accepted notion that paintings should depict personages from Ancient Greek and Roman cultures, or be politically correct, in line with the political views of the ruling establishment. The group that later would become known as “impressionists,” would challenge this status quo.

A painting that put Impressionism in history

In 1872, while visiting La Havre where he had grown up, he drew a picture of the La Havre harbor, as the sun rising over the sea as a fiery orange ball throwing reflection over the sea’s murky waters. The painting was named “Impression, Sunrise,” and was submitted to Salon. The painting drew the ire and anger of many connoisseurs of art who criticized him and others who painted in this new style. One critic wrote about the painting: “My impression: Not Impressed!” The term “impressionists” began to be used as a collective term to mockingly represent all the artists who painted in this new style.

Claude Monet Gambit by his businessman father

His father was a wealthy grocery business owner and when Claude Monet was 5 years old, the family moved from Paris to La Havre in the Normandy region of France. His father wanted him to manage the family business when growing up, but Claude Monet with the support of his mother who was a singer decided to pursue a career as an artist. This choice not to follow in the footsteps of his father would create a broken relationship and endless financial problems for future artist. His father refused to intervene and at the age of 21, he joined the French Army to serve in Africa. After serving 2 years he contracted typhoid fever and was discharged from the Army. Without the financial support from his father and little demand for his paintings, Claude Monet spent well into his late forties in poverty.

Salon system that made or broke the artists

Salon de Paris was a famous exhibition in the Louvre, France, of artwork that guaranteed success and growth if the painting was accepted. But due to censure and control by the French government and in part by traditional views of established critics, the work of Impressionist artists was not recognized. Edouard Manet’s “Olympia”, a depiction of a nude woman directly staring at the audience, drew strong criticisms of corrupting the art world with his creations. One critic commented that “even a wallpaper at the embryonic stage was more complete” than an Impressionist painting. Acceptance of painting in Salon guaranteed a recognition among the elite and quick sale of the artist’s work. All the Impressionists were barred from Salon and Claude Monet did not submit another work for 10 years following his debut in 1866 with “The woman With The Green Dress.”

Unwanted wife and the secret life of Claude Monet

Camille Doncieux was a 19-year-old model who posed for painters in Paris art studios for other artists. The young artist met her in 1866 when she posed for his life-size painting which he painted in four days and submitted to the Salon exhibition in the Louvre. The result was “Woman with the Green dress, (1866)” a mesmerizing life-size portrait which brought him his first recognition as an artist among his peer artists and critics.
While working together the artist and the model developed a relationship and in 1867, she became pregnant. But, due to Claude Monet’s family belonging to an upper class, his father did not want him to marry her and instead marry another girl from a middle-class family. He risked losing the financial support from his father, which he relied on heavily as he did not have any other source of income. He went back to La Havre to his father’s home and worked on other paintings while keeping his relationship and her pregnancy a secret. Only a plea letter from Camille brought him back to Paris when she delivered the baby. He would go back to La Havre a few days later.
Frederic Bazille, his longtime friend and fellow impressionist artist, helped by buying the painting “The Women in the Garden” for an exaggerated price of 2500 francs payable in monthly installments of 50 francs. Monet used the funds to officially marry Camille and start living together in 1870. Camille would die of cancer following her second birth in 1879.

Claude Monet escapes war to discover light and money

In 1870, when he officially married Camille, a war broke out with Prussia and he fled to London, England, with his family. Monet was impressed by how artists in London worked with light and incorporated it in their paintings. It would leave a lasting impression on the artist and his style, as he would create masterpieces by using light on his works in the latter part of his career famously known as the Monet Water Lilies and Haystack series.
While in London, he met Paul Durand-Ruel, a French art dealer who also escaped the war in France and had set up an Art Gallery in London. Paul Durand-Ruel would recognize the value of Impressionist art and would become a reliable buyer of Claude Monet’s paintings throughout his lifetime. The art dealer is quoted saying: “Without America, I would have been ruined, after having bought so many Monets and Renoirs.”

Monet’s second wife is a former client

In 1876, Ernest Hoschede, a wealthy merchant from Paris paid Claude Monet to paint several murals in his Château de Rottembourg. At the time, it was a much-needed source of income for the poor artist struggling to make ends meet. In the process, the two families become very close friends. In 1878 the financial crisis in Paris leaves Ernest Hoschede bankrupt as he loses all of his wealth, including his chateau. Monet invites the Hoschedes to move in with them at their tiny apartment where they live together. In the same year, Alice gives birth to a son Michel and some historians find striking similarities between his own son Jean-Pierre born of Camille in 1877. In 1879 following Camille’s death, Alice takes over the family affairs by looking after her own 4 children as well as Claude Monet’s 2 sons. Ernest leaves for Europe and does not return and by 1880 newspapers in Paris refer to Alice as Mrs. Monet. Two of them officially got married in 1892 following the death of Ernest Hoschede. During his life together with Alice, Claude Monet saw a rise in his fame and wealth due to her inspiration and guidance.

Discovery of Monet Water Lilies

The iconic water lilies Claude Monet paintings that constitute the biggest collection of his work are enchanting displays of magical colors of light’s reflection on the pond covered with water lilies. His work on water lilies began in 1883 when he discovered the property through his window on a train ride and immediately rented the house and the garden in Giverny, a small village 80 kilometers from Paris. In 1890 he bought the house and began the renovation work. He redirected the river into the pond to make it a big lake, planted water lilies and had a Japanese style bridge built over it. He spent most of his life and painted extensively about water lilies through different times of the day, and through different seasons.

Water Lilies mark the end of World War I

After the end of World War I, Claude Monet talked to Prime Minister Georges Clémenceau to have his art donated to the French Government. Clemenceau agreed to dedicate a room to his paintings in Musee de l’Orangerie in Paris and asked to paint 20 murals. Knowing how monumental this work would be, Monet kept redoing his work. This delayed his deadline and as a result, only 8 murals were submitted posthumously in 1927. The Great Impressionist artist died in his home in Giverny, in 1926.
These murals were hailed as “Sistine Chapel of Impressionism” and marked the end of an era. Summing up the legacy of the great artist, Paul Cezanne was quoted saying: “Monet was only an eye, but my god, what an eye!”
You can explore Monet paintings and buy oil reproductions online on 1st-art-gallery.com. Let’s discover art together 🙂