Biography: Claude Monet

Monet is perhaps one of the best known artists of his time. His significant accomplishments during his lifetime, as well as the ardor with which he adhered to the ideals upon which the impressionist movement was founded serve as proof of his greatness.

Born in 1840, Claude Oscar Monet began as a caricaturist in Le Havre, France, but soon began painting outdoor scenes as the result of the influence of his mentor, Boudin. In 1859, at the age of 19, although in poverty, Monet studied with his newfound friend Pissarro at the Atelier Suisse. A few years later, he met the group of people who would with him, form the core group of impressionists at the studio of Gleyre: Renoir, Sisley, and Bazille. During the oncoming of the Franco-Prussian War, Monet retreated to England with Pizarro and began to study many different artists including Constable and Turner. He then moved on to the village of Argenteuil along the Seine and collaborated on a collection of some of the most vibrant works of the impressionist era along with Manet, Renoir, and Sisley. For a brief period following 1878 he lived in Vtheuil, then moved to his final home in Giverny, about 40 miles away from Paris. At this point in his life, he was able to enjoy his newfound wealth by buying the Giverny home he had at first rented. For the rest of his days he traveled, always returning to his home in Giverny, which was to be his final resting place in 1926.

Throughout the years, Monet remained true to his impressionist ideals and was ultimately successful within his lifetime as a result of his artistic accomplishments. His first painting of interest was perhaps En Plein Air, one of his earliest attempts at an outdoor scene that he painted in the forest of Fontainebleau. His most prominent undertaking, Rouen Cathedral which he worked on from 1891 to 1895, was a series of paintings he painted of the cathedral at different times of day. This style was similar to an earlier work of his called Haystacks in which he did a string of four paintings of a barn in the countryside. His largest work was called Water-Lilies and was so large that a special studio had to be built partially underground just to complete it over the 15 year span of the project. Even near death, almost blind and barely mobile, Monet worked on this project and painted until the very end.

Monet is perhaps best known for his contributions to the impressionist movement and the founding of French impressionism. The movement itself was in fact named after a painting of his titled Impression: Sunrise, although it was first used by a critic as a derogatory term towards an 1874 exhibit of works including those of Monet. The movement was characterized by artwork that captured the general impression formed by a scene and the use of basic colors along with many visible strokes to imitate reflected light. Impressionism was very much like realism in the sense that the artist strove to capture the appearance of their subjects in different lighting, weather, and circumstances. Critics of the time often claimed that these works were sketches and incomplete works rather than completed realistic paintings.

Claude Monet has left a lasting impression on the world, reminiscent of the artistic movement he sparked along with his colleagues. His relative success in life as an artist stands as a living testament to his prolific artistic abilities as well as his lasting influence into the 21st century.

Biography: Claude Monet – Part 2

One of the most famous Impressionists, Claude Monet (1840-1926) gave a name to one of art’s most beloved movements. It was Monet’s “Impression Sunrise” painting at the 1874 Salon des Refuses that coined the artistic movement’s moniker, Impressionism. However, it was a sarcastic critic (Louis Leroy) who labeled Monet and his colleagues unfavorably as Impressionists, and compared the painting by Monet to wallpaper, noting “wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished.” Neither Monet nor Leroy could have imagined in 1874 just what eternal value this group was creating by giving birth to a new way of painting that would be beloved by so many, from the late 1800s unti the present day.

BACKGROUND

Claude Monet didn’t begin his artistic life as an Impressionist. Born to an affluent family in the northern French city of Le Havre, Monet’s interest in art began at an early age, where he was known for drawing caricatures of local personalities. As most artists of the time, he entered a private art school, studying under an Academy master, Charles Gleyre, along with fellow students August Renoir, Frederic Bazille, and Alfred Sisley, where he learned traditional painting techniques.

Aware of artistic developments in naturalism and realism, Claude Monet was drawn to the works of the avant garde, and he admired painters like Jean-Baptiste Corot, Gustave Courbet, and Edouard Manet. In the 1860s, Monet and other artists from the Atelier Gleyre began experimenting with a new, more spontaneous style of painting that attempted to capture the fleeting, temporal moment, instead of imitating reality.

BIRTH OF IMPRESSIONISM

This new style of painting did not sit well with the more traditional masters of art. The paintings of Claude Monet and his fellow experimenters were rejected by the Salon, the official exhibition of the French Academy of Art in Paris. The painters responded to this rejection by staging their own show in 1874, held in the studio of a photographer, Nadar, and dubbed the Salon des Refuses. The group went on to stage seven more exhibitions of their joint work. Gradually, their ideas began to gain acceptance, and the artists themselves each went their own way.

IMPRESSIONISTIC STYLE

Just why was Impressionism so scandalous? In a word, the painting style was revolutionary for the time. Impressionists broke with the realism tradition by beginning to visualize the physical world in a new way. New sensitivity was given to the fleeting, mobile quality of time.

Biography: Claude Monet – Part 5

Known as the “Father of Impressionism” Claude Monet displeased art critics during the last part of the nineteenth century. They thought his work to be sloppy and unfinished-they said he was lazy. However, anyone who has attempted to paint in the Impressionist style, will tell you it is easier said than done. To capture value rather than shape is a complex process that requires higher thinking.

Let us look at the man who, along with a few colleagues, ignored the critics’ taunts and developed this impressionism into one of the most popular art movements in history. Monet was born in Paris, but was raised in the harbor town of Le Havre, France . His father was a merchant and so Monet was exposed to a great variety of people. He was not a sharp scholar and often got into trouble for drawing unflattering pictures of his teachers. He eventually earned a small living drawing caricatures of tourists who visited the harbor.

Painter Eugene Boudin took the young Monet under his wing after seeing great potential in his drawings. He encouraged Monet to paint. Specifically,he encouraged Monet to paint outdoors,or plein-aire; something not many artists did at the time. While other artists were in their studios painting from memory or sketches, Monet was outside experiencing the colors, shadows and weather conditions that would serve as a catalyst for the birth of Impressionism.

The first Impressionist painting entered into a Salon exhibit was Monet’s “Impression of Sunrise”. Critics vehemently attacked the blurred lines and stylized colors and dubbed the artists who created such work as those “Impressionists”! While the title was meant to be a slur, it came to identify one of the most important art styles in history.

Monet worked tirelessly, often from his floating studio-a boat outfitted with an awning and all the supplies he would need to spend a day of painting. He would float down the river capturing the light as it reflected off such objects as the Japanese bridge he built on his property in Giverny, France. He often painted the same subject at different times of the day. His haystack paintings are some of his best examples of how light changes the appearance of an object. They also show how varied weather conditions give different surface effect to objects.

Monet was not too busy however, to have a life. He and his first wife Camille had eight children. After Camille’s death, Monet remarried. He and his second wife Alice finished raising these children in the Pink house in Giverny, France. Here Monet built a permanent home with an elaborate garden. His favorite scenes included water and he soon became famous for his stunning waterlily paintings. Upon observance, one will see that he clearly loved nature and loved to experience it first hand.

Toward the end of his life he was stricken with cataracts. After a failed surgery, he spent his last days virtually blind. Some of his final waterlily paintings, painted in his studio and most likely from memory, were as large as eight feet tall and ten to fifteen feet wide.

Born in 1840, Monet lived a long, productive life. He died in 1926 at the age of 86. Very seldom does an artist pass through time who so profoundly changes the course of art history. Monet,was just such and artist and from his example, the world is blessed with some of the most beautiful and intriguing works it has ever known.

The Worlds’ Most Famous Gardens

For many gardeners in the U.S. the winter is a down time because the ground is frozen and covered with snow. A popular alternative is for garden and gardening lovers is to take a midwinter trip to the world’s most famous gardens. This article will take you to some of most famous gardens in the world.

The first stop on the itinerary is the Far East. Japan has long been famous for its Zen or “Japanese Style” gardens. These gardens feature carved stone lanterns that are hundreds of years old, along with stones and plants arranged to maximize the Zen of the garden. Most gardens in Japan can be found near Buddhist temples often surrounding them or leading up to the Temples from the busy streets. Kenroku-en, Kairaku-en and Koraku-en are the three great gardens of Japan. Kenroku-en located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, is an old private garden developed from the 1620s to 1840s. It is open year-round during daylight hours and famous for its beauty in all seasons; an admission fee is charged. The garden is located outside the gates of Kanazawa Castle where it originally formed the outer garden, and covers over 25 acres. The garden is home to the oldest fountain in Japan and is lovely to visit in the winter.

The next stop on the journey is the garden made famous by Monet, the Garden at Giverny. Claude Monet noticed the village of Giverny while looking out the window of a train he was riding. He made up his mind to move there and rented a house and the area surrounding it. Some of his most famous paintings, such as his water lily and Japanese bridge paintings were of his garden in Giverny. Monet lived in Giverny from 1883 until his death in 1926. He and many members of his family are interred in the village cemetery. Today the garden features hundreds of plants, flowers, and trees along with the famous bridge that has been restored to its original condition.

The final garden to visit is one of the gardens designed by the one of the true experts in gardening. Gertrude Jekyll (1843- 932), was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines. In 1908, when she was 65, Jekyll was asked by Charles Holme to design the garden for one of his houses at Upton Grey in Hampshire. Gertrude Jekyll drew plans for the four and a half acre garden. On this chalky, sloping site she designed one of her most beautiful gardens. It includes many features of a typical Jekyll garden, but on a rather smaller scale than most of her commissions. To the west of the house stands the Wild garden. Grass paths wind from semicircular grass steps through rambling, species roses, to a small copse of walnut trees and wild flowers, beyond which lies a small pond. Some of Jekyll’s original drifts of daffodils remain at the end of the Wild Garden, still in the drifts she designed. This is one of the finest private gardens in the world and well worth the drive from London.

We hope these gardens have inspired you to get and travel this winter and would love for you to send us pictures that you have taken from other gardens across the globe. To read more gardening articles please visit http://www.no-crank.com.

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