Claude Monet was a famous French Impressionist painter born in 1840 in Paris. He showed an early interest in art but his father disapproved and wanted him to pursue a more financially stable career. Monet went on to study art formally and befriended other future Impressionists like Renoir and Sisley. Throughout his career he faced financial struggles and personal hardships like the death of his wife Camille in 1879 from tuberculosis, but found success and recognition for his innovative Impressionist style later in life. Monet is renowned for his water lily paintings created in his garden at Giverny, which came to define Impressionism and its focus on capturing fleeting effects of light.

1. Claude Oscar Monet
The First Impressionist
Claude Oscar Monet
The First Impressionist
Emily Adams

2. Where It All Began
Claude Monet was born on November 14th 1840 in Paris, France
His father Claude Adolphe was a grocer and his mother was a
singer.
His father felt that the arts brought no money and therefore it
was not in Claude Oscar’s best interest to pursue his dream.
Claude felt otherwise, at age 11 he began attending the Le Havre
School Of Art.
There he learned masterful techniques under the wing of
Jacques-Francois Ochard. Who also introduced him to
Eugene Boudin who became one of his most influential
mentors.
But at the age of 17, Claude’s mother passed away and thus
resulted in him leaving art school to move with his aunt.

3. Battalions to Brush Strokes
In 1861 Monet joined the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry.
Where he contracted typhoid and left after only 2 years of service.
Since his work was unfinished with the Cavalry, Monet agreed to
study art at a university.
In 1862 Monet began studying with Charles Gleyre.
During this time he met other influential artists such as Pierre
Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frederic Bazille.
Monet met Camille Doncieux, in 1867,
when she answered his model call for a painting in a field in France.
She was his most featured woman in his paintings.
She was his first love, and mother of his two children. Though Monet
ran into financial difficulties and attempted suicide in 1868.
Camille helped him recover and they married in June of 1870 after
the birth of their first son Jean.

4. A Rough Journey
July of 1870 the Franco-Prussian War began,
Monet and Camille fled France and took refuge in
England. There Claude Monet studied other artists
like John Constable and Joseph William Turner.
Though his paintings were denied exhibition by the
Royal Academy, Monet refused to give up and in
1871 Monet returned to France where he settled
in Argenteuil near Paris.
During his time at Argenteuil, Monet focused more
on developing his impressionistic style, painting
Impression Sunrise in 1872 which later served to
name the impressionist movement.

5. Trials and Tribulation
When Camille gave birth to their second son, she became ill
with Tuberculosis. And passed away on September 5,
1879. Her passing brought much grief and depression to
Monet, but later empowered him to create more
masterful pieces.
After this, Ernest Hoshede, a patron of the arts. Invited
Claude and his 2 children to live with him and his wife,
Alice.
By 1892 Monet married and moved to Giverny with Alice,
and her six children. This is where Claude Monet planted
a vast garden that later inspired his famous works
featuring willows and water lilies.
Although they'd been estranged for many years, Alice waited
until after her husband's death to accept Monet's hand in
marriage.

6. Artistic Success
• 1874- Exhibits "Impression : sunrise" at the first
Impressionist exhibition in the studio of Nadir.
• 1887- Exhibits in New York thanks to Durand-Ruel.
• 1889-Monet exhibits with Rodin.
• 1916 – 1926 he works on The Water Lilies. Monet
offers to donate them to France. Theses paintings
will be installed in an architectural space designed
specifically for them at the museum of the
Orangerie in Paris.

7. The Later Years
In 1911 Alice passes away, and soon afterwards Jean
Monet dies of Tuberculosis in 1914
By 1923 Monet is nearly blind from cataracts. He has
an operation in one eye. Which helps his sight.
During his phase with cataracts you notice slightly
more red in his art work. Which after his surgery
he went back and adjusted some of his pieces.
But in 1926, at the age of 86, Claude Monet died of
lung cancer and was buried in Giverny.

8. What Is Impressionism?
Impressionismwas an art movement thatbegan in Francein
the 19th century.
It showed visiblebrush strokes,
ordinarysubjectmatters,
emphasis onlight andits changing qualities.
It isa style that avoidstraditional harmony,and seeks to invoke
the impressionsof the composer

9. Le Promenade La Seine a Vetheuil