Have you heard yet? The National Museum of Art (MUNAL) gave some clues through its social networks that they could organize an exhibition of Claude Monet and here We bring you 10 facts and paintings that you may not have known about him to warm up engines.
10 facts and paintings that you may not have known about Claude Monet
As we told you here above, this Wednesday, April 19, 2023, the MUNAL gave some clues through its official social networks, like on his Twitter accountthat they could organize an exhibition of Claude Monet, so we want to take the opportunity to tell you and show you 10 facts and paintings that you may not have known about this famous artist.
1- With him began the impressionist movement
According to information from History-ArtClaude Monet was a key figure of the Impressionist movement. Yes, in fact they mention that it was one of his paintings that gave name to this artistic current.
Why was it so important? Well, because his innovations in the study of color and light provoked as much admiration as rejection, but above all because he was considered ahead of his time and an innovator.
And as the World History Encyclopediatransformed modern art with its emphasis on light brushstrokes, bright colors and “uncluttered nature”.
2- He was the son of a humble family
Good Oscar-Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840, the son of Claude-Adolphe and from a humble family that was almost always going through economic crises.
For this reason, in 1845, he and his loved ones moved to Le Havre, on the north coast of France, where his father worked in wholesale grocery sales with his brother-in-law.
Yes, his father worked hard for his family to get ahead, so Claude Monet began to attend school and his favorite subject, obviously, was art. He even started painting boats from the place where he lived.
3- He sold his cartoons to earn some money
As we told you, Monet from a very young age, around 15 years old, began to be fascinated by art and by the boats that he always drew. For this reason, and because his family did not have much money, it occurred to him that it would be a good idea to sell his cartoons..
In fact, the first place where he began to exhibit his works was in the window of a store in Francewhere every Sunday people gathered to admire the artist’s first strokes, turning the place into a small attraction.
4- His first artistic influences
The first artistic influence he had was his very aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadrean amateur painter who had a strong impact on her life, introducing her to the artist Amand Gautier.
But still around those years he met the landscape painter Eugène Boudin, with whom he went out to paint outdoors; quite the opposite of the traditional method of that time, which was to paint in a studio.
At just 17 years old, Monet painted his first painting outdoors called “View of the surroundings of Rouelles”in 1858.
5- Return to Paris to study art
It would be in April 1859 that Monet would collect some savings from the cartoons he had sold, and with the help of his family, he would go to study art in Paris.
That’s how it is; enrolled in the Académie Suisse and began a friendship with artists such as Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne. Cartoons of him would always get him out of trouble and help him get some money to support himself.
6- They call him for military service in Africa
One of the most interesting facts about Claude Monet is when he had to leave his paintings for being conscripted into military service that would last more or less seven years.
In June 1861 he left his studies and went with the French army to Algeria.just to the African light cavalry.
But don’t worry, the painter he did not waste this stage of his life and studied the brilliant colors of Africa, which left a huge impression on him. She even took to drawing whenever he had a bit of time.
After contracting typhoid fever in 1862, Monet was unable to return home. However, like a true heroine, his aunt got him out of the army six months later.
7- His “true teacher”
At the age of 22 he decided to stop calling himself Oscar and started painting full time again. Furthermore, in Le Havre, he met the Dutch artist Johan Barthold Jongkind, whose work he already admired for his way of capturing seascapes.
He himself would go so far as to mention that this painter would become his “true teacher”, even pointing out that he owed Johan the final development of his “painter’s eye”.
8- The meeting of the impressionists
Nearing the end of 1862, Monet returned to Paris, since one of his aunt’s conditions to get him out of the army is that he studied in the French capital with a well-known artist.
The chosen one? Auguste Toulmouche, who encouraged him to study at Charles Gleyre’s academy for the next two years. Thus Claude began to have more friendships with painters such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley. Little by little, the group of artists that would become known as the Impressionists came together..
9- 1866, the year recognition came
After caricatures sold in windows (who was the lucky one who bought them), going through military service in Africa, and studying with the best artists of the time, In 1866, recognition came to Claude Monet when two of his paintings were exhibited at the very same Salon in Paris..
One of them was just “Woman in Green Dress”in which the model was his lover Camille, and which the critics filled with praise for mixing the dark tones of the portrait with the modernity of women’s clothing.
Obviously the new attention brought him some sales. and in August 1867, he and his partner had a son named Jean. Although… these facts of his life were hidden from his father.
10- The dandy who found his style
to end these 10 facts and paintings that you may not have known about Claude Monetwe told you that the French painter was known as “el dandy”since he dressed in the best clothes despite the fact that he did not enjoy a good economic situation.
Well, for that and for how extravagant and experimental he was in his works. But as History-Art mentions, that was exactly what gave him international fame in an 1874 exhibition, in which he presented a painting made with colored spots that formed a landscape, the impression of a landscape.
This is how he discovered his style that he used more and more over the years, trying to capture the moment, the light and the different colors of what I wanted to paint at different times of the day and seasons of the year.
But what perhaps not many know is that when suffering from cataracts, the artist began to see more like through a blurred filter, so in his last paintings the forms were already dissolved in spots of color.
