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Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Claude Monet is born on 14 November 1840 in Paris. Soon though, his family moves to Le Havre, a harbour town facing the English Channel. As a youth, he is encouraged to start landscape painting, and he is most certainly inspired by the nature of Le Havre's surroundings. He studies at the Académie Suisse and meets Pissarro and Cézanne. During the following years he also becomes a friend of Renoir, Sisley, Manet, and Zola.

In 1869, Monet, together with Renoir, "invents" impressionism as they paint the restaurant called La Grenouillère in the small town of Bougival, west of Central Paris. The year after, Monet marries his favourite model and uses her in many paintings, most notably in The Walk and Lady with a Parasol. Sadly, she dies in 1879.

After a few years in London, Monet and his now famous colleagues formes a group and exhibit together at several occasions. Their first exhibition — in 1874 — is called "Impression: Sunrise", which is where the name "Impressionism" comes from. During the following years, the interest for the impressionist group increases, but Monet remains poor. For that reason, he moves from Paris and finally ends up in Giverny, west of Paris, in 1883. It is here that he — in his own garden — paints the beautiful garden paintings of the Japanese bridge and the water-lilies.

In the late 1880's he is at last able to sell his paintings and make quite a bit of money out of the sales. Often, he paints the same object many times, to explore the light's effects on the subject. His late paintings are almost always filled with light, just like the Englishman William Turner's. Monet dies in Giverny on 5 December 1926.

Read more about his lovely garden in Giverny here. The garden is open for visitors, and we find its surroundings delightful.

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