Claude Monet was born on November 14th, 1840 in Paris. During his childhood in Le Havre, he sold caricatures. A local artist named Boudin recognized his young talent and provided him with guidance. Claude Monet moved to Paris in 1859, where he attended the Académie Suisse and met Pissarro. In 1862/63, he also met Renoir, Bazille, and Sisley in the studio of Charles Gleyre. Monet experimented with different impressions of natural light and was successful in the salons between 1865/66.
In 1870, he married Camille Doncieux, and they moved to London with the help of Pissarro to escape the beginning war between France and Germany. Monet finally returned to France and settled in Argenteuil near Paris. He participated in the first exhibition of impressionism, with one of his pictures, "Impression, soleil levant," becoming the eponym of the whole movement. Claude Monet's spouse died in 1879, and he later married Alice Hoschedé, who unfortunately died at an early age in 1911. In 1883, Monet moved into a spacious house in Giverny and instructed a Japanese gardener to plant his garden with a well-known waterlily pond. The famous pond was his only theme until Claude Monet's death on November 6th, 1926.
Claude Monet is considered the epitome of impressionism. He painted nature to illustrate the spirits of light by depicting the same subject at different times of day. Monet was also fascinated by the reflections of water with shadow and light, with his own waterlily pond becoming his ideal subject.