Claude Monet (CLAWD maw NEH) was born in Paris,
France. Even as a
young teenager it became apparent that he had artistic ability. He
would draw caricatures of his teachers on his schoolwork. A caricature
is a drawing that represents the person, but certain features will be
exaggerated, or made larger than they actually are. He began to charge
people to draw their caricatures and was able to have a steady income
and even save some money.
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He served for two years in the military in Algeria on
the continent of Africa, but he became ill and was sent home to
recover.
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He married and he and Camille had two sons.
Unfortunately Camille died a year after their second son Michael was
born.
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He enjoyed painting outdoors observing how the light
would change as
the day progressed. He painted some scenes over and over again, and
each would be different from the others because it was painted at a
different time of day.
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Monet and several other artists were experimenting
with a method of
putting paint on the canvas without blending the colors. Brush strokes
and dabs of color would be placed side by side. Monet called it the
"division of colours". When you stepped back from the canvas, your eyes
would blend the colors together. This was not the traditional method of
painting, and many people rejected their works.
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In 1874 the artists decided to have their own art show
at the studio of
a photographer, G.F.T. Nadar who lived in Paris. More than 3,000
visitors came to the exhibit. The artists became known as
"Impressionists" because Monet had titled one of his paintings "
Impression - Sunrise ".
Also some said the paintings looked unfinished and were just first
"impressions". The artists who presented the show called themselves
"Independents".
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When Monet was fifty years old he bought some property
in Giverny, a
village outside Paris. He made a water garden that included water
lilies and a Japanese bridge. The latter part of his life was devoted
to paintings made in his water garden.
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Toward the end of his life his eyesight became poor,
but he continued
to paint until his death. In fact, when he died, he was working on a
huge water lily painting that today hangs unfinished in the Orangerie
of the Tuileries (tweel REE) Gardens in France.
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