As with most famous painters, they sure lived interesting lives and Claude Monet is no exception. Here we’ve got some really cool facts for you about this famous ‘impressionist’
painter.

Claude Monet was born on 14th November  1840 in Paris, France. He was named Oscar-Claude, and his parents called him Oscar. Isn’t it weird how everyone calls him Claude though and his parents called him Oscar? How bizarre!

When he went to school he used to draw caricatures of his teachers! A caricature is a type of drawing where some facial features are made to look funny so it almost looks like a comic drawing!

Monet’s father was a grocer and his mother was a singer. His Dad wanted him to work with him, but Claude decided against it as he wanted to be an artist instead.

He went to Le Harve School of Arts in 1851 and he still carried on drawing caricatures. He was able to sell his charcoal caricatures to help bring in some extra money.
Clever indeed! Wouldn’t it be cool to have a caricature done of you by Monet to see what you would look like!

He was mentored by Eugene Boudin, who was one of the first landscape painters who actually painted outside. Boudin taught Monet how to paint with oil paints, as well as how to paint outdoors.

Monet moved to England at the start of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. He was inspired by the work of John Constable, who was also a landscape painter. In May 1871 he moved to Zaandam in the Netherlands, before moving back to his home country in France, in November 1871.

Monet married Camille Doncieux in 1870. They had two children. Sadly, Camille died of tuberculosis when she was juts 32. That’s terrible!

Claude Monet was the founder of the impressionist movement. The impressionist movement was all about capturing movement and changing light and color. He did this in his paintings, and he was less concerned about the paintings actually looking real.

He is probably most well-known for his series of paintings of water lilies, but he also painted many other landscapes and seascapes also. For example, he produced a series of paintings of weeping willows – a tribute to the fallen French soldiers in World War 1.

Paintings by Claude Monet now sell for tens of millions of dollars. He produced more than 1000 individual paintings during his career. Whoa…that is a lot of money and a lot of paintings too!

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