Claude Monet was a famous French Impressionist painter born in 1840 in Paris. He was mentored by painter Eugene Boudin who taught him to paint outdoors. Monet is known for his paintings of landscapes and scenes in natural light. In 1883, he moved to the town of Giverny where he purchased a house and property. There he created a famous garden with water lilies and Japanese bridge that became subjects of many of his later paintings. Monet lived and worked in Giverny until his death in 1926, leaving the house and property to be preserved.

1. Claude
Monet
1840-1926

2. Monet was a French painter and the leader of
Impressionist Style.
Impression:
Sunshine 1872

3. Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840
in Paris.He was the second son of Claude
Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubrée
Monet.
His father wanted him to go into the family
grocery business, but Monet wanted
to become an artist.
His mother was a singer.
On the first of April 1851, Monet
entered Le Havre secondary school
of the arts. Locals knew him well
for his charcoal caricatures, which
he would sell for ten to twenty
francs.

4. On the beaches of Normandy in about
1856/1857, he met fellow artist Eugene
Boudin, who became his mentor and taught
him to use oil paints. Boudin taught Monet
"en plein air" (outdoor) techniques for
painting.
Bouding was a famous marine painter.
When Monet traveled to Paris to visit the
Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from
the old masters. Having brought his paints
and other tools with him, he would instead
go and sit by a window and paint what he
saw.

5. Monet died of lung cancer on 5 December 1926 at the
age of 86 and is buried in the Giverny church
cemetery.
His famous home, garden and water lily pond were
bequeathed by his son Michel, his only heir, to the
French Academy of Fine Arts (part of the Institute de
France) in 1966.
Through the Foundation Claude Monet, the house and
gardens were opened for visit in 1980, following
restoration. In addition to souvenirs of Monet and
other objects of his life, the house contains his
collection of Japanese woodcut prints.
The house is one of the two main attractions of
Giverny, which hosts tourists from all over the world.

6. Monet’s Charcoal
Caricatures

7. The Woman in the
Green Dress 1866
Monet's Camille or The
Woman in the Green
Dress (La femme à la
robe verte), painted in
1866, brought him
recognition and was one
of many works featuring
his future wife, Camille
Doncieux

8. Women in the Garden
Camille was the
model for the figures
in Women in the
Garden of the
following year, as well
as for On the Bank of
the Seine,
Bennecourt, 1868,
pictured here. Shortly
thereafter, Camille
became pregnant and
gave birth to their
first child, Jean.

9. On the Bank of the Seine,
Bennecourt, 1868

10. Camille Monet on Her
Deathbed
1879
Monet and Camille Doncieux had
married just before the war (28
June 1870)and, after their
excursion to London and
Zaandam, they had moved to
Argenteuil, in December 1871. It
was during this time that Monet
painted various works of modern
life. Camille became ill in 1876.
They had a second son, Michel, on
17 March 1878, (Jean was born in
1867). This second child weakened
her already fading health. In that
same year, he moved to the village
of Vétheuil. On 5 September 1879,
Camille Monet died of
tuberculosis at the age of thirty-
two; Monet painted her on her
death bed.

11. Monet’s Home at Giverny and
Some of His Paintings
At the beginning of May 1883, Monet and his large family rented a house and 2 acres
(8,100 m2) from a local landowner. The house was situated near the main road between the
towns of Vernon and Gasny at Giverny. There was a barn that doubled as a painting studio,
orchards and a small garden. The house was close enough to the local schools for the
children to attend and the surrounding landscape offered an endless array of suitable motifs
for Monet's work.

12. Japanese Bridge

13. Monet was
exceptionally
fond of painting
controlled
nature: his own
gardens in
Giverny, with its
water lilies,
pond, and
bridge.

14. Japanese Bridge

15. Gardens at Giverny

16. Water
lilies

17. Le Jardin a
Giverny