Monet Claude. This name was heard even by those who are very, very far from the painting and the world of bohemia. Today, the paintings of this artist go off the auction just for fabulous sums and are dissolved by unknown buyers in private collections, and after a while they pop up again to be sold for even more money.
What kind of person was he? What paths of life led him to the path of painting? And what helped to achieve such brilliant success along this path?
Adolescence
It is not known how the life of the future painter would have developed if it were not for the stinginess of his father. Although their family cannot be called very rich, they were never in need either. However, Claude-Adolphe Monet, the boy’s father, believed that his young offspring was quite able to do without pocket money. But for the boy, this situation was presented in a completely different light.
Monet Claude was moderately independent, a little hooligan and very freedom-loving teenager. He escaped school at any opportunity and climbed the nearby rocks, enjoying freedom. When it was not possible to escape, the restless boy in the classroom had fun drawing caricatures of teachers and classmates.
Soon, Monet Claude mastered the skills of a cartoonist almost perfectly. His work was so successful that fellow practitioners agreed to pay for it, which the young artist happily used to supplement his meager budget. Parents were not enthusiastic about this venture, but they were not going to interfere with their son.
Meeting with the artist
After some time, Monet's cartoons were already exhibited in the city shop along with the work of a certain Eugene Boudin - a local painter. Eugene recognized talent in the strokes of simple pictures of a young man, advised him to develop it and offered his help.
Monet Claude politely refused as much as he could, because Buden's work did not impress him at all. However, at some point, for the sake of decency, he still had to go to a meeting with the artist. And Claude really enjoyed their conversation.
Monet was really lucky with the mentor. He did not put pressure on the young man, did not impose his opinion, and indeed classes with him did not at all resemble a school drill. Boudin selflessly shared his experience and taught Claude to see the beauty of the world. See it in your own way and immediately display it on canvas.
Further training
Not much time passed, and Eugene Boudin advised the young man to go to study in Paris. Claude-Adolphe Monet allowed his son to leave, but was not going to spend a centime on his education. He tried to propose a son’s candidacy for a scholarship in the art school of his native city, but when his application for a scholarship was refused, he completely washed his hands.
However, this did not stop the eighteen-year-old boy. He gathered his few belongings and savings and went to conquer Paris. Upon arrival in the capital, he met many artists, took an interest in how he studied, and realized that the School of Fine Arts, where he intended to enter, did not suit him.
He realized that by doing self-education and working hard, you can achieve much better results than sitting in boring lectures. And perhaps not the last role was played by his freedom-loving nature, which at school did not allow him to sit still. Because of this decision, his father completely refused to help him, but Monet did not back down and stayed in Paris.
Military service
The biography of Claude Monet will not be complete, if not to mention his military service. He was drafted at the age of twenty and sent to Algeria. At that time it was a very troubled place, and the world might never have seen the work of one of the founders of impressionism, but, fortunately, the young soldier caught typhoid fever and did not fall into the zone of direct military operations.
And thanks to the patronage of his worried aunt and her financial assistance, he managed to pay off the compulsory military service and return to his homeland in 1862.
Confession
The young artist stubbornly continued to hone his skills. Soon, Claude Monet's paintings began to attract public attention. A breakthrough in this regard was the work entitled "Camilla, or a portrait of a lady in a green dress." Soon, the girl depicted on this canvas became the artist's wife.
In fact, Camille was Monet's favorite model, and her image can be seen on almost all the canvases of the artist on which women are found. They lived happily until the death of Camilla, who died of tuberculosis at 32 years old.
Today, world-famous galleries consider it a great success to get Claude Monet's paintings in their collections. Photos of his works and their reproductions adorn many living rooms in rich houses. At auctions, paintings by his brush are worth tens of millions of dollars. In Russia, the originals of Monet's paintings can be seen in the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin.