Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840. I bet that Paris was neat. He had an older brother named Leon and a mother and father. His family moved to Le Harve when Monet was little. Monet went to a private school when he was eleven. I wonder what private school was like. When Monet was sixteen he was already famous in Le Harve. He got about $60.00 for each of his paintings. The first painting of Monet’s available was View from Rouelles. Monet painted it when he was seventeen and a half. I would love to buy one of his pictures. One of Monet’s paintings was called Impression: Sunrise. Monet’s last painting was Water Lilly Pool.

Monet made friends with Camille. She was probably a pretty woman. He married her in 1870. Claude Monet’s parents and Claude Monet probably felt proud. She died in 1879. He had two sons, Jean Monet, born in 1867 and Michael Monet, born in 1878. The painters that went to the Academy Suisse (a school for artists) could talk and joke while they painted. I bet that made it a lot more fun. They were also allowed to use either a pencil, brush, or a palette knife. They could work in watercolor or oil. They could also paint from a model or paint a still life.

Monet rented a home in Giverny in 1883, which he bought in 1890. He lived there for forty three years. In 1907 he started having problems with his eyesight. He had an operation and his vision got better. He died in 1926. Many of Monet’s paintings are pictures of water. Monet used a small boat as a studio. He painted as he went down the river. Wouldn’t that be fun? Monet painted a lot of pictures of water lilies and haystacks. Monet used brushstrokes to paint. After the invention of oil paint in tubes, artists (like Monet) started using them a lot. Before the invention of oil paint in tubes, artists had to mix water and colored powder to get paint. If you painted outside, lots of different things stuck to the paint. I bet that must have been messy. Monet would also sketch the layout of the painting. A sketch he did for his haystacks series shows the details he saw most important in his paintings. The sketch shows the basic types of the haystacks and a simple layout of where the haystacks are placed. The sketch also shows the places of the shadows and the lines of light and the sky. Monet had a basic idea of the form he was going to paint before he started his work .

Claude Monet is now famous. His paintings are known by millions and zillions of people and are wanted by millions and zillions of people. And he doesn’t even know about all this because he died before his work became famous. If you have time, visit an art museum and check out Monet’s paintings. They’re really cool!

Special credit to the Claude Monet Home Page for letting us use their picture.