ound himself disillusioned by the confines of long-since established principles. He rejected the formal art training that was available in Paris. Bored and frustrated, Monet was to do more painting at the very relaxed Acadmie Suisse then in the formal schools for which he had left Le Havre. In the Spring of 1862, Monet was called up for National Service. He went to Algeria for a year with a prestigious regiment: les Chaussures d'Afrique . This experience was to have a profound effect on Monet. The landscapes and colors of Algeria presented an entirely different perspective of the world, one which was to inspire him for many years to come. Theoretically, Monet should have remained in Algeria for seven years, but his time there was curtailed by the contraction of typhoid. The artist's aunt, Madame Lecadre, intervened and bought Monet out of the army. Her only condition: that Monet return to Paris and make a serious attempt at completing a formal artistic tuition course. Despite these provisions, Monet did not enroll in l'cole des Artistes . It was a renowned institution, but one filled with the traditionalists that Monet was so determined to contradict. Instead, he joined the studio of the Swiss-born Charles Gleyre. Gleyre was a successful Salon painter but he was neither a professor at the cole nor was he a member of the Acadmie . Remembering his own poverty as a student artist, Gleyre charged very little , only 10 francs for models and the studio. This leniency attracted a large number of artists. The student body, such as it existed, was extremely diverse: young, old; rich, poor; good, bad, etc. Among them all, however, Monet was to meet three very cl ose and influential friends: Frdric Bazille, Auguste Renoir and Alfred SisleyThis subcategory of Gleyre's students was representative of the studio's diverse constitution. While all three of these painters were talented, they came from very different social backgrounds. Noticeably, Renoir...
