Like many artists of his day, Claude Monet lived a chaotic and beautiful life, as reflected in his paintings. For this reason, in Supercurioso we want to share with you the most fascinating Claude Monet curiosities.
This painter always worked stubbornly, pursuing his own artistic goals: firstly, being attracted by the rhythmic beauty of the tall trees, and later, rigorously studying the modifications in color. But If there is something unalterable in his life and work, it is passion. Something that you can verify by reading the curious facts about Monet that follow below.
10 Curiosities of Claude Monet that you should know
There are numerous representations of Claude Monet: self-portraits, works of friends and photographic portraits that have fixed the artist’s features at different times in his life. But we need more: to know their secrets, discover their torments, see what Claude Monet’s curiosities hide…
1. His childhood had nothing to do with art
Claude Oscar Monet was born on November 14, 1840 in the city of love, one of the curiosities of Paris. Nevertheless, his childhood impressions and memories are linked to Havrewhere his family settled in the mid-1840s.
Curiously, the environment in which Claude Monet grew up was not linked to art: his father owned a grocery store and he did not listen to his son when he told him that he wanted to be an artist.
Claude Monet only learned about art thanks to his aunt’s advicewho painted as a hobby.
2. Claude Monet was a successful cartoonist
Within the curiosities of Claude Monet, we know that this artist has a whole past to reveal. Did you know that before painting beautiful landscapes, he made caricatures?
The young Monet was known for his cartoonish depictions. In fact, critics liked his caricatures more than large-format canvases.
After a meeting with Eugen Boudinwho advised him not to waste time doing caricatures, and to focus instead on landscape paintings, Claude Monet’s life changed forever…
3. Claude Monet’s favorite place to paint
Monet he was obsessed with cliffsespecially those found in the spectacular Alabaster Coast. Monet often visited Étretat, which inspired several of his landscapes; his recurring motif is a cliff jutting out into the sea.
4. A cry of revolution
Claude Monet’s fun facts are truly fascinating. And one of them is located in 1874, when he, together with other of the great masters of impressionism, decide to break the rules that for years the academies had imposed on them.
Before the manifestation of the impressionists, no group had exhibited outside of a salon! The Impressionists were the pioneers when it came to breaking with traditions and Claude Monet, as always, was at the forefront.
The first exhibition of the Impressionists opened on April 15, 1874 at the Boulevard des Capucines. 30 artists presented 160 works, Monet sent 9. So, among the curiosities of Claude Monet, we can also count his own voice and soul as a revolutionary.
5. Camille, Monet’s great love
Camille Doncieux he was 18 years old when he met Monet. This young artist was captivated by her from the first moment he saw her.
He then asked her to be the model for one of his first famous paintings: The picnic, which would be exhibited in one of the salons in Paris. Later, she was one of the people who painted the most Monet in his life.
Claude Monet married Camille in 1870 in Paris, but their marriage did not last long. Camille’s health continually deteriorated. After her death, Monet was devastated, and his last act of love was to paint her on her deathbed when she was only 32 years old. There are tragic curiosities in the life of Claude Monet that did not let him be happy.
6. Impressionism owes its name to Monet
The curiosities of Claude Monet and impressionism are closely linked. We know that Monet was one of the great exponents of the Impressionist movement, but Did you know that thanks to him it was given the name “Impressionism”?
Thanks to Monet’s seascape of 1874, sunrise print, that was shown in the first exhibition of the Cooperative and Anonymous Association of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers is named after Impressionism.
This exhibition was attended by a famous art critic named Louis Leroy who, upon seeing Monet’s painting, mocked by the unfinished “impressions” of this. He did not suspect that it would give its name to one of the great movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.
7. Monet’s suicide attempt
Some psychological descriptions of Claude Monet portray him as a hermit man: “A short gentleman in a straw hat and a unstable and restless person«.
Monet’s abrupt mood swings, his continual dissatisfaction with himself, his spontaneous decisions, stormy emotions and cold meticulousness, they made him an artist with very complex emotional problems.
So much so that in 1868 he threw himself into the Seine with the intention of taking his own life; luckily, she immediately regretted it. However, throughout his life he was plagued with melancholy. Claude Monet’s life is not only full of curiosities, but also of tragedies.
8. He was a refugee
In 1870, when the devastating Franco-Prussian War broke out, Monet and his family escaped from Paris to live in London.. It was a success. After Monet left, the city was besieged and other artists died in the war with the fall of the revolutionary Paris Commune.
9. The friendship of Monet and Manet
Manet and Monet were aware of their respective works long before they were introduced and, although Manet was initially very cautious in his attitude towards Monet’s artistic experimentation, the group’s leader batignolle early became interested in him and began to follow the development of his work very closely.
As far as Monet is concerned, he did not imitate Manet as much as he did imbued with his searching spirit. They became great friends and shared good and bad criticism of his works. Each fed on the other’s artistic knowledge until death.
10. Monet’s destroyed paintings
To close with our list of curious facts about Claude Monet, we must tell you that he destroyed part of his works. He tore up at least 500 of his paintings. In 1908, an exhibition of Lily pads he had to take a picture after he broke it into 15 different parts.
To this we must add that when he married his second wife, Alice Hoschedé, she asked him in a few outbursts of jealousy to destroy portraits and paintings she had of Camille, to which he agreed.
We have reached the end of our curiosities about the life and work of Claude Monet. Tell us. Do you know other curious facts about Claude Monet? And if you want to know more about the world of art, we recommend you read some curiosities of Van Goghyou will surely love it.