Claude Monet (http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/monet/monet_bio.htm)
Monet grew up in France and studied art in Paris against the will of his parents, who wished him to enter law, a more stable and honorable occupation (Encyclopedia). In these early years, he was encouraged by Boudin to paint outdoors, a technique, which Monet used for most of his works (Encyclopedia). Monet also associated with artists such as Pissarro, Cezanne, Sisley, Bazille, Manet, and Renoir (abcgallery).
Monet, Claude. Impression: Sunrise.
Musee Marmottan: Paris, 1872.
Perhaps Monet’s most well known accomplishment is being the “father of Impressionism.� It was at the first Impressionist exhibit of 1874 that the term “Impressionism� originated from the title of Monet’s 1872 work, Impression: Sunrise. Unlike the traditional art accepted by the Salon, an exclusive exhibiting group in France at the time, Monet’s painting exhibited the rough, visible brush strokes that have made Impressionism so famous today. This work, like his others, represented a diversion from concentration on the narrative to one on nature and the capturing of a moment lacking all meaning. In fact, all of Monet’s later works lack figures altogether (history1900s). He instead studied nature and more specifically, the light at different times and seasons (encyclopedia).
(left)Monet, Claude. Rouen Cathedral, Façade.
Museum of Fine Arts: Boston, 1894.
(right) Monet, Claude. Haystack, Snow Effects, Morning.
Museum of Fine Arts: Boston, MA, 1890.
This concentration on light led Monet to create many series paintings in which he painted the same scene under different conditions. Some of his popular focuses were the Haystacks in Giverny and the cathedral and Rouen. Such reworking was often tedious for Monet as seen in the letters of correspondence with his wife, Alice. She saw his “moods ruled by the weather� (Russell 64). Nonetheless, Monet’s intense attention to the light and success at assisting in the introduction of this new style of art resulted in the fame, which he still has today.