Oscar-Claude Monet (/moʊˈneɪ/; French: [klod mɔnɛ]; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a
founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the
movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air
landscape painting.[1][2] The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression,
soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent
exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.
MONET'S AMBITION OF DOCUMENTING THE FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE LED
HIM TO ADOPT A METHOD OF PAINTING THE SAME SCENE MANY TIMES IN
ORDER TO CAPTURE THE CHANGING OF LIGHT AND THE PASSING OF THE
SEASONS. FROM 1883 MONET LIVED IN GIVERNY, WHERE HE PURCHASED
A HOUSE AND PROPERTY, AND BEGAN A VAST LANDSCAPING PROJECT
WHICH INCLUDED LILY PONDS THAT WOULD BECOME THE SUBJECTS OF
HIS BEST-KNOWN WORKS. IN 1899 HE BEGAN PAINTING THE WATER
LILIES, FIRST IN VERTICAL VIEWS WITH A JAPANESE BRIDGE AS A
CENTRAL FEATURE, AND LATER IN THE SERIES OF LARGE -SCALE
PAINTINGS THAT WAS TO OCCUPY HIM CONTINUOUSLY FOR THE NEXT 20
YEARS OF HIS LIFE.
IMPRESSION, SUNRISE
MONET AND IMPRESSIONISM
First "Impressionist" exhibition
From the late 1860s, Monet and other likeminded artists met with rejection from
the conservative Académie des
Beaux-Arts which held its annual
exhibition at the Salon de Paris.
During the latter part of 1873, Monet,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille
Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley organized
the Société anonyme des artistes
peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs
(Cooperative and Anonymous
Association of Painters, Sculptors, and
Engravers) to exhibit their artworks
independently. At their first exhibition,
held in April 1874, Monet exhibited
the work that was to give the group its
lasting name.
Impression, Sunrise was painted in 1872,
depicting a Le Havre port landscape.
From the painting's title the art critic
Louis Leroy, in his review, "L'Exposition
des Impressionnistes," which
appeared in Le Charivari, coined the
term "Impressionism".[3] It was
intended as disparagement but the
Impressionists appropriated the term
for themselves.
BIOGRAPHY
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR
AND ARGENTEUIL
After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (19 July 1870),
Monet and his family took refuge in England in September
1870,[16] where he studied the works of John Constable
and Joseph Mallord William Turner, both of whose
landscapes would serve to inspire Monet's innovations in
the study of color. In the spring of 1871, Monet's works
were refused authorisation for inclusion in the Royal
Academy exhibition.[15]
In May 1871, he left London to live in Zaandam, in the
Netherlands,[15] where he made twenty-five paintings (and
the police suspected him of revolutionary activities).[17] He
also paid a first visit to nearby Amsterdam. In October or
The first Impressionist
exhibition
held in 1874 at
boulevard desFrom
Capucines,
Paris,
November
1871,
hewas
returned
to35France.
December
from 15 April to 15 May. The primary purpose of the participants was not so
1871 tomuch
1878
healived
a village
onofthe
to promote
new style,at
butArgenteuil,
to free themselves from
the constraints
the right
Paris. The exhibition, open to anyone prepared to pay 60 francs, gave
bank of Salon
thedethe
Seine
river
near
Paris,
a popular
Sundayartists
opportunity
to show
their work
without and
the interference
of a
jury.[20][21][22]
outing destination
for Parisians, where he painted some of
his best-known works. In 1873, Monet purchased a small
boat
tocommittee
be used
asmosta offloating
studio.[18]
From
Renoirequipped
chaired the hanging
and did
the work himself,
as others
failed
to present themselves.[20][21]
the boatmembers
studio
Monet
painted landscapes and also
portraits of Édouard Manet and his wife; Manet in turn
depicted
Monet painting aboard the boat, accompanied by
In addition to Impression: Sunrise (pictured above) Monet presented four oil paintings and
pastels. Among the In
paintings
he displayed
was The Luncheon
(1868), to
Camille,seven
in
1874.[18]
1874,
he briefly
returned
features Camille Doncieux and Jean Monet, and which had been rejected
Holland.which
by the Paris Salon of 1870.[23] Also in this exhibition was a painting titled
Boulevard des Capucines, a painting of the boulevard done from the
photographer Nadar's apartment at no. 35. Monet painted the subject twice, and
it is uncertain which of the two pictures, that now in the Pushkin Museum in
Moscow, or that in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, was the
painting that appeared in the groundbreaking 1874 exhibition, though more
recently the Moscow picture has been favoured.[24][25][26] Altogether, 165
works were exhibited in the exhibition, including 4 oils, 2 pastels and 3
watercolors by Morisot; 6 oils and 1 pastel by Renoir; 10 works by Degas; 5 by
Pissarro; 3 by Cézanne; and 3 by Guillaumin. Several works were on loan,
including Cézanne's Modern Olympia, Morisot's Hide and Seek (owned by Manet)
and 2 landscapes by Sisley that had been purchased by DurandRuel.[20][21][22]
IMPRESSIONISM