50 Fun Facts About Claude Monet

Monet was born in 1840 in which city, before the family moved to Le Havre?

He was born on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte and baptised Oscar-Claude; his parents called him Oscar.

What did Monet's father want him to go into instead of art?

His mother, a singer, backed his ambitions; she died in 1857 when he was sixteen.

How did the teenage Monet first earn money from art?

He started at 15 and had saved around 2,000 francs from his drawings by the time he reached Paris.

Which painter, met around 1858, taught Monet to paint outdoors and was called by him 'my master'?

Monet said he owed him everything; the Dutch painter Jongkind became a second mentor in 1862.

Monet's widowed, wealthy aunt, who supported his early career, was named what?

She later paid 3,025 francs to buy him out of the army after he caught typhoid.

Conscripted in 1861, Monet enlisted for seven years with which unit?

Army records give him as 165 cm with brown hair and chestnut eyes; he had never ridden a horse.

Where did Monet serve in the army in 1861-62, later saying its light 'contained the gem of my future researches'?

Typhoid fever sent him home; his aunt then bought his discharge.

In whose Paris studio did Monet meet Renoir and Frédéric Bazille in 1862?

He left after disagreeing about how to present nature; Bazille became his closest friend.

Monet's Salon submissions between 1865 and 1870 were accepted by the jury how many times?

He debuted successfully in 1865, was accepted again in 1866 and 1868, then stayed away until a single last attempt in 1880.

Camille Doncieux, mother of Monet's son Jean, first entered his life in what role?

His father cut off his money over the relationship; they married in June 1870.

Why did Monet and his family live in London and the Netherlands in 1870-71?

In London he met Whistler and the dealer who would carry his career, and admired Turner's fog-bound Thames.

Which dealer, met in London in 1870-71, became Monet's first and primary art dealer?

His American sales later gave Monet financial security, though Monet grumbled the dealer cared only about the United States.

At Argenteuil in the 1870s, what did Monet acquire to paint on the Seine?

He spent five years there, much of it in a little floating studio, thinking in colours and shapes rather than scenes.

Which chemist's colour theories interested Monet at Argenteuil?

His ideas on the juxtaposition of colours fed directly into Impressionist technique.

Under what name did Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas and others exhibit independently in 1874?

The name was chosen to avoid association with any style; the group were united only in rejecting the Salon.

Which critic coined the term 'Impressionism' in a hostile review of the 1874 exhibition?

He meant it ironically, as 'unfinished'; he later regretted inspiring the name.

Impression, Sunrise depicts the port of which town?

It was a hazy 'stylistic detour', priced at 1,000 francs and unsold at the 1874 show.

How many francs did Monet ask for Impression, Sunrise at the 1874 exhibition, without finding a buyer?

Attendance was about 3,500; anyone willing to pay 60 francs could exhibit, with no jury.

For the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877, Monet showed seven paintings of which Paris location?

He had painted a dozen views of the station in three months, studying how smoke and steam changed colour and visibility.

Camille Monet died in 1879 of what?

Monet painted a study of her dead face, later confessing he found himself 'systematically noting the colours according to an automatic reflex'.

Alice Hoschedé, Monet's second wife, was previously married to what kind of businessman?

Ernest Hoschedé commissioned four paintings, shared a house with the Monets at Vétheuil, then went bankrupt; Alice married Monet in 1892.

In which year did Monet move into the rented house at Giverny that became the family home?

He bought it in 1890; two days after arriving he learned Manet had died and had to borrow money for the train fare to the funeral.

Monet was a pallbearer at the 1883 funeral of which fellow painter?

He had no money for the fare or mourning clothes and petitioned Durand-Ruel for it; Zola was another pallbearer.

Monet's 1884 trip to Bordighera, where he painted 38 canvases, was to which country?

He asked Durand-Ruel not to tell Renoir he was going alone; the palm trees, he complained, were 'exasperating'.

How many gardeners did Monet eventually employ at Giverny while remaining the garden's architect?

He wrote daily instructions, precise planting layouts, and kept a library of botany books.

Monet's water lilies included cultivars imported from South America and which other place?

Alongside native white lilies they gave him yellows, blues and whites that turned pink with age.

Which subject formed Monet's first exhibited series, shown at Durand-Ruel's gallery in 1891?

Fifteen were shown; twenty-six views of Rouen Cathedral followed in 1892.

How many paintings of Rouen Cathedral did Monet exhibit in 1895?

They focus on the play of light across the façade rather than the building itself; he experimented with making his own frames.

Switching canvases as the light changed, Monet sometimes juggled how many at once?

He usually spent about an hour on each before moving on.

From which London hotel did Monet paint the Thames on his stays from 1899 to 1901?

'Without the fog London wouldn't be a beautiful city,' he said; he painted Waterloo Bridge at sunrise and Charing Cross Bridge in the afternoon.

From where did Monet paint his views of the Houses of Parliament?

Hostess Mary Hunter arranged access through a doctor there; a 2006 Royal Society paper confirmed they were painted on the spot.

How many paintings did Monet make in Venice during his three-month stay in 1908?

He was reluctant to leave his pond and flowers; back home he sold the lot to the Bernheim-Jeune brothers at 12,000 francs each.

Monet's Venice trip came at the invitation of Mary Hunter, who had rented which Venetian palace?

He initially began painting only tentatively; Alice wrote that the city was 'so created to tempt you'.

Monet's 1909 exhibition Les Nymphéas comprised how many water lily paintings?

Repeatedly postponed since 1906 while he reworked or destroyed canvases, it was a success.

Roughly how many water lily paintings did Monet make in total?

They occupied the last 20 years of his life and pushed his art towards abstraction.

Which American painter, met in 1887, intrigued Monet with his outdoor figure painting?

The two frequently influenced each other thereafter.

Whose botched cataract operations made Monet reluctant to have surgery himself?

He said he would rather have poor sight than lose 'a little of these things that I love'; he finally had the operation in 1923.

How did Monet cope with his failing colour perception in the 1910s?

He also wore a straw hat against glare and worked more from memory and imagination.

After his 1923 cataract surgery, Monet did what to many canvases from before the operation?

Now 'able to see the real colours', he later retouched others with bluer water lilies.

Which statesman, Monet's close friend, negotiated the water lily decorations for the state?

He also encouraged the building of the large new studio for the water garden cycle.

During World War I Monet painted a series of what as homage to France's fallen soldiers?

His younger son Michel served in the war.

Monet died in December 1926 of what?

He was 86 and insisted on a simple funeral; only about fifty people attended.

What did Clemenceau do at Monet's funeral, saying 'No black for Monet!'?

The Water Lilies were 'technically unfinished' at his death.

How many water lily panels were installed in the Musée de l'Orangerie in May 1927?

Few came to see them; his late work was only 'rediscovered' by the Abstract Expressionists in the 1950s.

What happened to Water Lilies paintings owned by the Museum of Modern Art in 1958?

It came just as André Masson's essay was reviving appreciation of Monet's late work.

Monet's collection of what, still displayed at Giverny, had a pronounced influence on his art?

His son Michel bequeathed the house and gardens to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1966; they opened to visitors in 1980.

Monet's Cliffs Near Dieppe was stolen twice. Who was convicted of the 1998 theft?

He got five years and two months; the painting was taken again in 2007 and recovered in 2008.

What did Google do for Monet on 14 November 2001?

The Google logo was rendered in his signature style.

Which Monet painting set a then-record $41.4 million at Christie's New York in May 2008?

Weeks later a water lily pond canvas nearly doubled it at £40.9 million in London.

A 2013 New York case over Monet's Le Bassin aux Nymphéas involved an aide to which former first lady?

Vilma Bautista sold it for $32 million; the Philippine government sought its return.