Kennedy 1
Watson Kennedy
Reif
Visual Arts
11/30/15
Claude Monet, The Impressionist
Sitting calmly behind a canvas, right hand grasping a paintbrush recording the
beauty beyond, with eyes continuously glancing back and fourth from canvas to beauty;
brush strokes correlating precisely with every pleasant view. Vision is straining from near
to far replicating the sight to be hung on a wall. This is a simple description of an
impressionist painter at work, a job Claude Monet perfected.
Considered the founder of impressionism, Claude Monet was born in Paris,
November of 1840 (Caroll 27). At the age of 5, he and his family moved to Le Havre,
France where his father, who was a grocer, planned to raise Monet into the family
business; however, Monet’s passion for art crumbled his father’s dream (Caroll 27). His
pursuit of art was hampered however in March of 1861 as he was drafted into service.
Monet’s father, an extremely financially secure man, had the option to buy his discharge
for 2,500 francs, and was willing if Monet would give up art. The impressionist refused,
spending his early twenties as a soldier in North Africa (Meyers 19). After his unexpected
time as a soldier, “ he went to Paris, over parental objections, to study painting” (“Claude
Monet”). There he developed many life long friendships with Pissarro, Cézarre, Sisley,
and Renoir, Who all later became popular impressionists (“Claude Monet”). Once his
studies in Paris were completed, Monet spent a few years without much success as an
artist and had some financial hardship; this caused depression attempting to end his life in
