He is a famous French impressionist painter. In his youth he painted caricature portraits and exhibited them in the art supplies shop in which Eugene Boudin worked at the time.

Eventually Boudin persuaded the young Monet to become a landscape painter.

After finishing his military service in Algeria Monet attended the Academie Suisse and there made the acquaintance of Pissarro and Cezanne. Later, in 1862.he entered the Atelier Gleyre where he met Bazille.Renoir and Sisley. In the 1860s the young artists frequented the Cafe Guerbois, a place often visited by Emile Zola an d Edouard Manet.

The canvases they produced marked the emergence of a now artistic movement.Impressionism.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 Monet lived in London and was introduced to Paul Durand Ruel, a celebrated art dealer who did much to popularize Impressionist works. In 1874.in an atmosphere of increasing hostility on the part of official artistic circles.Monet and his friends formed a group and exhibited on their own for the first time. By then they had found many supporters and admirers. The following years saw a flourishing of Impressionism. In those years he created such masterpieces as La Gare Saint-Lazare and La Rue Montargueil. However, his canvases found few buyers.

Desperately poor, he constantly looked for places where life was cheaper, and lived at Argenteuil from 1873 to 1878.at Vetheuil from 1879 to 1881.at Poissy in 1882.and at Giverny from 1883 until his death.

In the late 1880s his painting began to attract the attention of both the public and critics.

Fame brought comfort and even wealth. During that period the artist was engrossed in painting landscapes in series, recording different light effects at different times of day. In 1899 Monet first turned to the subject of water-lilies, the main theme of his later work.

Fourteen large canvases of his Water-lilies series, started in 1916.were bequeathed by him to the State.

Claude Monet died of lung cancer on December 5.1926 at the age of 86 and is buried in the Giverny church cemetery. - No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition. - My life has been nothing but a failure.

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