Camille Doncieux was a dark haired eighteen year old woman. She
was brought up in a well-to-do family, and the year she turned
eighteen she fell in love with Claude Monet. Monet married Camille
partly because he was having financial difficulties and to him she
was rich. Several years later Camille's family stopped supporting her
and Monet. It was now through all their pain and grief that Monet
realized that this woman he had married seven years ago, mostly for
her money, was actually the love of his life and that he did love
Camille. They struggled to survive for their every day needs. It was
during this time Camille developed tuberculosis and it was now that
she was going to have her second child. Michael was a beautiful baby
boy. That year Camille died. Michael would become the youngest of the
Monet family.
The Cradle. Camille with Jean, 1867, National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
