Oscar Claude Monet

Oscar Claude Monet

Oscar Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840 in Paris, France. Monet spent most of his childhood in Le Havre, France. In Le Havre, Monet studied drawing and painted seascapes with a French painter Eugene Louis Boudin in his teens. By 1859 Monet committed himself a career to be an artist. Monet spent a lot of time in Paris around 1859. By 1860 Monet met a pre-impressionist painter, Edouard Manet. Monet also met other French painters destined to form the impressionist school. Monet met Camille Pissaro, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.

Monet painted simple landscapes and sketch like scenes of bright color. Monet had some success in official exhibits. In 1874, Monet and his colleagues decided to organize their own exhibition in public. Monet and his colleagues called them selves, independents, but the press later named them impressionists because their work seemed sketchy and unfinished (like a first impression). One of Monet's paintings had the title Impression: Sunrise in 1872, in Musee Marmottan, Paris. During the rest of the 1870's and early 1880's, Monet used special techniques to paint scenes of different impressions on colors. Monet went to the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts to study the effects of light and color.

By mid 1880's Monet was generally the leader of the impressionist school and he achieved significant recognition and financial security. Monet was recognized, as the master of meticulous observation and true feelings for is paintings. In 1890, Monet was able to purchase some property in the village of Giverny, not far from Paris. In Giverny Monet began to construct a water garden ( a lily pond arched with a Japanese bridge and overhung with willows and clumps of bamboo). In 1906, Monet's paintings of the water gardens remain with him for the rest of his life. Monet's water garden paintings hang in the Orangerie, Paris, the art institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Monet continued to paint up to his death, which occurred on December 5, 1926 in Giverny.

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