(1840-1926)
Oscar Claude
Monet
“My only merit lies in having
painted directly in front of
nature, seeking to render my
impressions of the most fleeting
effects.”
—Claude Monet
Oscar Claude Monet

French

Founder of French Impressionist
Painting

The term “Impressionism” was
picked up from the title of
Monet’s painting Impression,
Soeil Levant (Impression
Sunrise,”) which was exhibited
in1874.

Impressionistic paintings
appeared to the public
as if they were unfinished
or sketch-like.
Impression, Soeil Levant, 1874
The Young Monet

Monet became known for the funny
drawings he did (caricatures) of
people in town. His drawings earned
him money and made him very
popular. He was then noticed by an
artist Eugene Boudin a man that
became a mentor to Monet.

Boudin introduced Monet to plein air
landscape painting (painting
outdoors.)

He had a hard time sitting in class and
preferred to be outside.

His mom supported his love of
drawing and art, but his dad wanted
him to follow in his footsteps and be a
businessman.
c1855-6 “Caricature of a Man with a Large Nose”
Graphite on paper 25 x 15 cm
Monet Learns and Struggles

Pursuing his career in art, Monet
was surrounded by painters that he
creatively connected to: Renoir,
Pissarro, Sisley and Bazille.

Even though his work was
accepted into a huge annual art
show at the Salon in Paris in 1865,
he still struggled to make a living as
an artist.

He married Camille Doncieux
whom he painted many times (the
Woman in Green.)

He would get very frustrated with
his paintings and often throw them
away. It is said that he destroyed as
many as 500 paintings.
“The Lady in the Green Dress,”
1866, oil paint
“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.”
—Claude Monet
“The Promenade, Woman with a Parasol,”
1875, oil paint
Successful as
an Artist

In the late 1880s and 1890s,
Monet created his serial
paintings and was successfully
living as an artist.

One series he painted between
1892-1894 was of the Rouen
Cathedral in Northern France.

Different paintings showed the
building in morning light,
midday, gray weather and
more; this repetition was a result
of Monet's deep fascination
with the effects of light and the
fleeting moments of nature.
“I would like to paint as the bird sings.”
—Claude Monet
“These landscapes of water and reflection have become an
obsession for me. It is beyond my strength as an old man, and
yet I want to render what I feel.” —Claude Monet
Monet – The
Later Years

Around 1912 Monet’s eyesight in
his right eye began to fail. He
continued to paint through
sadness and continued loss of
sight in both eyes.

He had beautiful gardens at his
Giverny home (which is now a
museum that celebrates Monet’s
life.) Many of his later paintings
were of his extraordinary gardens.

He hoped that his garden pieces
would soothe the “overworked
nerves” of viewers.
“Water Lilies and the Japanese bridge,”
1879-99, oil paint
Orangerie des Tuileries Project

The Orangerie des Tuileries project consumed
much of Monet’s last years. He chose to make
them on a very large scale, designed to fill the
walls of a special space for the canvases in the
museum; he wanted the works to serve as a
"haven of peaceful meditation.” 1920-1926
STEPS ONE - FOUR
1.
Put your name on the back of your paper using a
light colored chalk.
2.
Draw a curved horizon line 1/3 of the way down the
paper.
3.
Then draw two more lines to break the section so
that you now have four areas of your paper.
4.
On the top line draw the outline of three trees
This is a good time to talk about the rule of odds.
1
2
3
One of the simplest ways to make a composition more
dynamic is to have an odd number in the composition,
say three, five, or seven, rather than an even number,
say two, four, or six. It's called the Rule of Odds.
Having an odd number of things in a composition
means your eye and brain can't pair them up or group
them easily. There's some how always one thing left
over, which keeps your eyes moving across the
composition.
4
STEP FIVE
1.
Color in your tree trunks first.
Extend the brown a little bit into
the circle of the tree leaves. You
will go over that with color.
2.
Let’s make it fall for our trees. Pick
three leaf colors that remind you
of fall and assign one color per
tree.
3.
Remember that this is black paper
so you may need to really add
layers of color to make it show.
STEPS SIX AND SEVEN
1.
Pick a couple of blue colors for the
sky to contrast against the colors in
the trees.
2.
Think about how you are going to
color the three split sections of field
colors. Will they match the trees
foliage? Will they be colors from a Dr.
Seuss book?
3.
Have fun with this step but keep in
mind that tying the colors of the trees
to the field adds a visual connection.
And surely any connections in nature
Mr. Claude Monet would approve of.
FINISHING
1.
2.
Add a little bit of shadow from the trees
in the top layer of the field by using a
slightly darker color.
Monet loved how light is portrayed by
contrast in colors.
a) Add some white to the sky.
b) Add a lighter color in each section in
the field
c) Add a darker color in each section of
the field
3. The key to Monet’s success was that he
didn’t capture itty bitty details, he left us
with an impression of a landscape and let
the softness sit with us.
Sources
Biography of Claude Monet
http://www.biography.com/people/claude-monet-9411771
Caricature information
http://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2011/12/cluade-monetcaricatures.html
Image of the Water Lilies Bridge and Water Lilies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet#/media/File:Wate
r-Lilies-and-Japanese-Bridge-%281897-1899%29-Monet.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Lilies#/media/File:Claude_
Monet_038.jpg