Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Art Claude Monet1 Claude Monet1 Throughout his life, Claude Monet had an unbelievable talent for painting. With an ingenious mind and the creativeness to paint the sky, Monet created a world of magic and emotions. He set the standards of Impressionism with determination. His painting method brought a sense of beauty of light and reflections to the world, letting it understand where he made his mark in the history of art today. Claude Oscar Monet was born in Paris, France, on the fourteenth day of November, in 1840. At age five, Monet and his family moved to Le Havre where they had a prosperous business of selling groceries. They were quite proud of the fact that they had a good sum of money coming in weekly from their business. Evidently, they were hoping that young Monet would soon take his father's position of being the owner of the store. But, for Monet, the idea of being an owner of some boring grocery store did not intrigue him, nor the money. He wanted something else in life. Attending school a couple of years later, Monet seemed to be a failure to his family. In school, he was always reported for rude behavior and nonsense, which was not tolerated in schools back then. The family received constant reports about him being undisciplined. After hearing the reports, day in and day out, Monet's family agreed with the teachers that Claude would be "unlikely to make a success in his life (Sheff 1)." Showing no fascination at all for school, Monet was becoming a failure. The only thing that he liked about school was the ability to paint. Eventually he became so very fascinated with painting that all he ever did was paint. It became an addiction. At age fifteen, his addiction allowed him to earn money for his paintings. Now the future life of Monet became more evident. As Monet grew, his love of painting grew. He began to study drawings when he was a teen. He was also tutored by Eugene Boudin, a former artist, who taught him techniques about painting (Encarta 94). Monet attended the Atelier Libre, a school where he met the later Impressionist group (Chew 1). There, he met Auguste Renoir who soon became a close friend of Monet's. In school, he was taught everything about art and painting. What influenced Monet the most were Realist thoughts. "Realist means being a friend of real truth" declared the movement's leader Gustave Courbet (Fraser 1). This quote changed Monet's perspective about art tremendously. The idea of sacrificing reality in art to a beautiful ideal was mind blowing to him. Still under the influence of the realists, Claude Monet experienced "open air" painting (Fraser 1). This is when a painter paints outside, in the open air, with nature. Monet's painting method was greatly influenced by a French painter named Manet. He used Manet's style, along with some of his own originality, to form his own painting technique. His method of painting came from observing the effects of light on a particular scene. Since his method of painting expressed the truth, Monet had to think more deeply into his field of study. He rarely used dark, somber colors. Instead, he used the rainbow prism effect to paint. That is why his paintings express much color. The color on color relationship worked smoothly on Monet's entire canvas. His eye for color and shadows made him an even better painter. Monet would start a painting by first drawing a rough sketch. He would then place broad parallel or criss-cross strokes and long loopy lines. He would cover the entire canvas, in a first session, in about 1 hour (sheff 4). He would then go back over the painting, defining crisp lines, using an extraordinary range of brushstrokes. They were usually thick, bright, fine, linear brushstrokes. As he painted at a continuous pace, his method of painting perfected itself. Selling paintings became a difficult task for Claude, especially when his new approach to painting was revealed. At first, the public shunned Monet's artwork, considering them unfinished paintings. But over time, they became interested in his unfamiliar methods. Monet married Camille Doncieux and soon had a son named Jean. Supporting the family was inevitable, especially at the young age of 25. His attempt at suicide failed, when he tried to drown, himself in 1868 (Fraser 2). Presenting a work, unfamiliar to the world, was rough. During the Franco-Prussian War, selling paintings for money became even more difficult. Leaving his family behind, he left for England, hoping for better success. Luckily, he met a wealthy man who wanted to buy Monet's paintings. Legendary dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who also escaped from the war, bought Monet's paintings for exhibit. In 1872, Monet returned to France with enough money to raise his loving family. His paintings were such a success that Monet was receiving 14,000 francs per year (Fraser 3). He now had enough money to rent a house in Argenteuil. 1872 marked Monet's most successful year in selling paintings. After this year, business went downhill. Nation-wide, economic depression disabled Monet and his business. Once again, Monet experienced the hardships of making his business prosper. Monet and his family moved in with the Hoschede family, which tremendously helped out Claude. Despite the changes Spain went through during the war and now through the modern capitalists, Claude Monet kept in high spirits. In 1878, Camille Monet gave birth to their second son, Michel (Pioch 2). Within the same year, Camille's health began to deteriorate. She died in 1879 (Pioch2). Life after the death of Camille would never be the same for Claude Monet. Left with hardly any money or any paint, Monet was once again on the verge of committing suicide. Luckily, during that year, his paintings began to sell. Later in Monet's life, he bought a house in Giverny. There he built his water lily garden, and spent the rest of his years painting water lilies, which became a series of paintings. On December 5, 1926, Claude Monet died, leaving behind an amazing amount of paintings to be cherished by the world. Monet contributed many paintings, that he worked on during his life, to the public. Through all of his trials in life, he found a way of emitting his emotions through painting. He devoted his life to what he had done best, and that was to paint. So many things can be said about this man, that it can leave a person speechless, and in awe of all his artwork. Being a member of the group of Impressionists, he committed his whole life towards his paintings. As dangerous as it is to focus on one goal, Monet's determination to bring about a new technique of painting was worthwhile. Today, it has inspired many people around the world. His first painting, “Impressionism: Sunrise,” bore the name of the group Monet created (Nunhead 3). I think Monet is considered one of the brightest painters to date. He was very daring in his work and tried new ideas that had never been experienced before; he was truly a man that had respect for art. His ideas and techniques were very powerful, leaving many people gazing, in awe, at his artwork. So much can be said about Monet. He could paint with emotions that others could never see. He could dazzle you with his brush-strokes and bold mix of color. He could leave you with a sense of serenity, as you look upon his water lilies, in one panel, and leave you feeling angry and depressed, when you look at an almost identical scene, on another panel. He was truly an amazing artist with a gift not many have been able to duplicate. Bibliography: Bibliography: 1. Chew, Robin. Claude Monet: French Impressionist Painter. Sept. 30, 98: http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/95noe/monet.html. 2. Fraser, A. Heather. Claude Monet: A 19th Century Businessman. Dec. 17 1998: http://www.ffauclagary.ca/artbusiness/bankthirteen.html. 3. Microsoft Encarta. "Impressionism." Funk and Wagnalls Corp. 1994. 4. Microsoft Encarta. "Monet, Claude." Funk and Wagnalls Corp. 1994. 5. Nunhead, Nancy. Monet. New York: Barnes and Noble Inc., 1994. 6. Pioch, Nicolas. Impressionism. Dec. 14, 1998: http://metalab.unc.edu/wm/paint/glo/impressionism. 7. Sheff, Jeremy. Impressionism. Dec. 17, 1998: http://www.columbia.edu/~jns16/monet_html/method.html. 8. Sheff, Jeremy. Impressionism. Dec. 17, 1998: http://www.columbia.edu/impressionism.html. 9. Morris, Catherine. Claude Monet. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1999 Word Count: 1285
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