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| | Monet, Claude | (French, 1840-1926) |
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| | Monet was born in November 1840 in Paris. His interest in art started as a young boy when he gained a reputation making caricatures. In 1858, the young artist met landscape painter Eugène Boudin, a mentor who introduced him to outdoor painting. Monet was reluctant to leave the studio, but plein air painting eventually became the basis for his life’s work and Impressionist painting, the movement he pioneered along with artists Renoir and Pissarro. | | During the 1860s, Monet traveled extensively and experimented with light, color, and atmosphere. He married wife, Camille, in 1870, and the two moved to London where he completed one of his most famous works. His painting, “Impression: Sunrise” from 1872, prompted a newspaper critic to call Monet and his contemporary’s Impressionists. | | During the 1890s, Claude Monet devoted himself to his serial paintings, including his celebrated haystacks (1891) and the facades of Rouen Cathedral (1892-1894). The paintings feature his subjects in more or less the same physical position, with the only changing aspect being the natural light and atmospheric conditions. Monet’s late life proved difficult as he became increasingly blind and suffered from poor health. In addition to Monet's physical ailments, he struggled with the problems of his art. | | In 1920 he began work on twelve large canvases of water lilies. To complete them, he fought against his own failing eyesight and the fact that he had no experience in creating large-scale mural art. The paintings are characterized by a broad, sweeping style and depend almost entirely on color. Monet worked on the water lily paintings until his death on December 5, 1926. | | Works cited: | | http://www.expo-monet.com/2.cfm | | http://www.biography.com/impressionists/monet-bio.jsp | | http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ma-Mo/Monet-Claude.html |
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