Claude Monet
Biography
He was born on 14 November 1840 on the fifth’s floor of 45 rue Laffitte in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. He was the second son of Claude Adolf Monet and Louise Justine Aubree Monet both of them second-generation Parisians. On 20 May 1841 he was baptised in the local church Notre-Dame-de Lorette as Oscar Claude but his parents call him simply Oscar.
In 1845 his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy, and he became interested in the outdoors and drawing from an early age. Although his mother Louise-Justine supported his ambitions to be a painter, but his father , Claude Adolphe discouraged and wanted him to be a businessman. He went to study at the Academy Suisse and under the academy history painter Charles Gleyre where he was a classmate of August Renoir.
In April 1851 he entered Le Havre secondary school of arts. He was apathetic student who after showing skill in art from young age, begun to draw caricatures and portraits of acquaintances at the age of 15 for money.He began his first drawing lessons from Jacques-Francois Ochard a former student of Jacques-Louis David. In around 1858 he melt flow artist Eugene Boudin who would encourage Monet to develop his techniques teach him the “en plain air” (outdoor) techniques for painting and take Monet on painting.
Monet thought of Boudin as his master, whom “he owed everything to” for his late success.
In 1857 his mother died. He lived with his father and aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre; Lecadre would be a source of support for Monet in his early art career.
Franco-Russian War
He became married on 28 June 1870 just before the outbreak of the Franco-Russian. During the war he and his family lived in London and the Netherlands to avoid conscription.