Claude Monet - Artist

Claude Monet is described as an initiator, French painter and leader. He was also an advocate of the Impressionist style and his lifelong devotion to the ideals of the movement have resulted in him being regarded as the archetypal Impressionist. Claude Monet spent his early years in Le Havre, he started out as a caricaturist and was converted to outdoor landscape painting by his first artistic mentor, Boudin. He studied at the Atelier Suisse in Paris in 1859 then went on to complete two years military service in Algiers. He returned to Le Harve and formed a friendship with Jongkind to whom he said he owed 'the definitive education of my eye'. In 1862 he met with Bazille, Sisley and Renoir when he entered into the Parisian studio of Gleyre. It was with these artists that Claude Monet formed the basis of the Impressionist group. Throughout the Franco-Prussian war Monet moved to England and took refuge with Pissarro, during this time he studied the works of Turner and Constable. Between 1871 and 1878 he moved to a village on the Seine near Paris called Argenteuil. It was during this time that Monet painted some of his most famous works of the Impressionist movement including 'Monet's Garden at Argenteuil' and 'The Seine at Argenteuil'. It was also at this time when Claude Monet became regarded as the leader of the Impressionist school and had reached financial security and artistic recognition through his work. In 1890 he purchased a house in the village of Giverny and it was at this property he constructed his famous water garden. From 1906 onwards he was occupied with painting his water lilly pond and it is these paintings for which he has become most recognised for. The paintings now hang in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Orangerie in Paris. Claude Monet continued painting up until his death in December in 1926.

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