claude monet french 1840 1926 impression sunrise

Claude Monet (1840–1926), The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867), oil on canvas, 75.8 x 1,025 cm, Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. The Mouth of the Seine, Honfleur, painted in 1865, is even closer to his home in Le Havre.

Claude Monet (1840–1926), The Mouth of the Seine, Honfleur (1865), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA. He doesn’t appear to have painted here again until the 1880s. He first painted at Étretat on the Channel coast in 1864, shown in this view of Étretat, with the headland nearest the village and the Manneporte. Claude Monet (1840–1926), Étretat (1864), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Association Peindre en Normandie, France. It’s also prescient in containing a row of poplars similar to those he later painted repeatedly. Given that he was only 18 when he painted this, and had been learning to use oils for just two years, it’s strong evidence of his technical abilities and talent. View At Rouelles, Le Havre (1858) is believed to be Monet’s earliest surviving painting in oils, and adopts thoroughly realist style. Claude Monet (1840-1926), View At Rouelles, Le Havre (1858), oil on canvas, 46 × 65 cm, Private collection. He had two paintings accepted for the Salon, but struggled to sell any of his works. They came under the influence of others, including Jongkind and Manet, and developed ideas following those of Manet. There he met Renoir, Bazille, and Sisley, and they become close friends, often painting together en plein air. There he continued to paint, and in 1862 started lessons at the academy run by Charles Gleyre. He left school in 1857 following the death of his mother, and went to live with an aunt in Paris. In about 1856, he met Eugène Boudin, who became his mentor and introduced him to plein air painting in oils. However, he started selling caricatures, and took drawing lessons. Monet was born in Paris, but brought up in Le Havre, on the Normandy coast, where his family ran a grocery shop. That wasn’t the case in 1874, when he was one of the core members of the movement, but by no means the dominant. The last of my list of individual artists who showed or should have shown their paintings at the First Impressionist Exhibition of 1874 is Claude Monet (1840-1926), who in the twentieth century became considered as the lead, if not the only, Impressionist.

Claude monet french 1840 1926 impression sunrise