Oscar Claude Monet was born November 14
1840 in Paris France he was the second
son of Claude Adolf Monet and Louise
Justine Aubrée Monet from a young age
Monet wanted to become a painter even
though his father wanted him to continue
the family shipping -chandelling and grocery
business. His mother however was a singer
and supported Monet's desire to become
an artist
the first artworks that Monet started to
sell were his charcoal caricatures while
he was attending Le Havre Secondary
School of the Arts
it was the artist Eugène Boudin who
eventually became Monet's mentor and
taught him to use oil paints. Monet is
most famous for being known as the
father of Impressionism which will take
us to his first major work in the Musée
Marmottan Monet in Paris. Impression
sunrise, impression Soleil Levante. This
painting depicts the port of Le Havre
considered Monet's hometown as they
moved there when he was young it was
first shown at what would be known as
the exhibition of the Impressionists in
April 1874 in Paris an interesting fact
about this painting is that it was
stolen in 1985 from the Musée Marmottan Monet
by Phillipe Jamin and Youssef
Khimoun. It was recovered and returned to
the museum in 1990 and put back on
display in 1991 the rest of Monet's
paintings are not famous in themselves
but the series that they are a part of
our famous as a whole one of the
paintings in the first series we will
look at takes us to the city of Chicago
Illinois
wheat stacks end-of-summer. this is just
one of the 25 paintings in this series
found in the Art Institute of Chicago
each of the paintings in this series
show almost the same subject of a field
in Giverny but in different light and
atmosphere at different times of day
across different seasons and in
different types of weather
Monet dedicated his life's work to the
understanding of the effects of light on
the local color of objects and the
effects of the juxtaposition of colors
with each other these paintings are
found in museums and private collections
across the world
the second series will take us to New
York City and the Museum of Modern Art
reflections of clouds on the water lily
pond this is one of the largest
paintings in this 250 painting series it
measures 2 meters high by almost 13
meters long these paintings depict his
flower garden at his home in Giverny and
were the main focus of his artistic
production during his last 30 years of
life though many of the paintings in
this series are in museums worldwide
many have also been auctioned for
millions of dollars the most of these
being 54 million u.s. dollars the last
series that we will take a look at takes
us back across the ocean to the National
Gallery of Scotland and Edinburgh
poplars on the Epte. This painting was
painted in 1900 and is a part of a three
group series of paintings all featuring
poplars near Giverny and along the Epte
River the first group of these paintings
features towering poplars that go off
the top of the edge of the canvas in the
second group there are a large group of
trees and in the third group there are
three or four poplars on the banks of
the river his two other most noted
series of paintings with a Rouen
Cathedral series which was made in 1892
and 1893 in Rouen Normandy there are 20
paintings in this series
the London Parliament series he did in
the fall of 1899 and the early months of
1900 and 1901 during his days in London
they are all from the same Terrace or
window from the St. Thomas Hospital
overlooking the Thames. Monet died at the
age of 86 in Giverny, France of lung
cancer his home garden and water lily
pond were weld to his son Michel he then
gave them to the French Academy of Fine
Arts in 1966 they are still open for
visits for tourists to this day make
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see you next time on art history with
Brian's long
