CLAUDE MONET
b1840 d1926
Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840.He was encouraged to paint by Boudin, whom he met at Le Havre. He met Pissarro at the Académie Suisse. Later, on entering Gleyre's studio, he met Bazille, Renoir and Sisley.
Monet left France for England in 1870, possibly to avoid service in the Franco-Prussian war. He remained there until 1872, painting the first of his London scenes and studying the work of Turner with Pissarro, who had also gone to London to avoid the war.
On his return to France, Monet began to work from a studio-boat, which allowed him to study the interplay of light and water, a subject that continued to fascinate him until the end of his life.
It was a painting by Monet that gave Impressionism its name. Called Impression - Sunrise, it was exhibited at Nadar's in 1874, where it aroused the wrath of a critic called Louis Leroy. He called his devastating account of the exhibition The Impressionists' Exhibition, and the name stuck, though not - in the long run - quite as he intended.Although Monet is rightly considered the father of Impressionism, he exhibited at only five of the eight Impressionist Exhibitions.
He died at Giverny in 1926.