Notably, Monet did not stop painting figures in 1867, but the period of time during which the majority of his energies were concentrated on figure painting ended after the rejection of Femmes au Jardin from the Salon of 1867. His desire to make “important” paintings, however, did not end, as in 1868 he wrote to Bazille, “I believe that this year I will do some serious things” (qtd. Seiberling, 24). 
This continuing ambition to do “serious” paintings despite his departure from figure paintings indicates Monet no longer relied on the Salon’s opinions; he had confidence in himself as a landscape painter, and believed that landscape paintings could be as “important” as figure paintings. For it was not so much that Monet had failed at figure painting so much as he had realized nature was his muse: as he wrote to Bazille in 1868, “Don’t you think that one is better off alone with nature? …What I will do here will at least have the merit of not resembling anybody’s work, because it will simply be the expression of what I’ve felt myself” (qtd. White, 63). Gone is the Monet who worried about “making a mistake”; his words indicate he has gained confidence in himself and his work, as well as his choice of subject. The Monet who was so famously devoted to his garden at Giverny may not have existed had Monet not tried his hand at figure painting: it was through his efforts at figure painting that Monet was able to reconcile his love of nature and his ambition, thus becoming one of the most influential painters of the modern age.
Image:
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste. Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil, 1873. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, USA.