Historic Unedited Photos They Don't Want You To See
Publication: Historical Archives. Posted by
Historic Unedited Photos They Don't Want You To See
About a century ago, a talented impressionist named Claude Monet made a series of paintings depicting the flowers in his French Garden. He's pictured here standing with several of these works.
Many artists like to touch on a single subject multiple times throughout their careers. However, one artist that was known for the same subject over and over again was Claude Monet, a French painter that had more than 200 paintings of the same subject. You can see that here, as Monet is posing in front of just a couple of his paintings from the Water Lilies set that he became so well known for.
This particular photograph was taken in 1920 in Giverny, France, which Monet had called home for much of his life. He was born in Paris, however, on November 14, 1840. At just a few years old, Monet’s mother had exposed him to the arts as she was an excellent singer, and Monet wanted to open that part of his mind, setting out to make it his goal to become a professional artist. Growing up in Normandy, Monet’s father was a blue collar worker that wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, but Monet had those other ideas already in place.
As a youngster, Monet took art classes, learning how to both paint and draw before his teenage years had even started. His mother, the inspiration for his foray into art, had sadly passed away when he was just 16, though, causing him to leave school to pursue art on a full-time basis. Monet started to paint on his own, getting away from trying to copy other artists and painting the world the way the he saw it.
His art career had to be put on hold for several years as Monet was drafted into the French military, being shipped to Algeria. Even though he was stationed, Monet didn’t give up his artistry, drawing many of the subjects that he saw while out of the country. Eventually, Monet was able to get out of military service so that he could get into learning painting once again. Instead of the typical art school this time, though, Money had received personal lessons from some noted artists in France during the 1860s.
At this point in his career, Monet had been working on more traditional and realistic forms of art, but that soon changed in that decade. He shifted his focus into what’s known as Impressionism, a new concept at the time. It was even one of Monet’s paintings of the era called “Impression, Sunrise” that earned this genre of art its name. This style of art is defined as the depiction of natural appearances of objects by means of dabs or strokes of primary unmixed colors in order to simulate actual reflected light.
This style, however, was quite unpopular amongst the other artists in France at the time outside of Monet’s circle of friends. Those that worked in the more traditional style had looked down on Impressionism, and their works were often rejected from galleries. With that, Monet and other similar painters found themselves outside of the country displaying their work in countries such as England or the Netherlands. Eventually in the 1870s, though, Monet came back to France where his popularity had increased, earning himself an exhibition toward the middle of the decade.
A lot of people were impressed with Monet’s work, which included “The Magpie”, “The Luncheon” and “Woman in a Garden”. Thousands of people had come to see Monet’s paintings, putting him on the map as one of Europe’s most famous painters. At this time, Monet had been married to his wife Camille Doncieux, but she sadly passed away at just 32 years old in the fall of 1879. Together, the couple had two sons and Monet had moved the family to Giverny following Camille’s death.
Monet’s star had been on the rise which allowed him to obtain a large property in Giverny that gave him a large garden that is still there today, as well as multiple studios on his estate. It was while he was in Giverny that Monet was able to draw inspiration for his most famous series of work, the aforementioned Water Lilies.
Monet had always had a penchant for making a series of paintings rather than just sticking to one-off paintings throughout his career. Water Lilies became his most well known series of his life, with over 250 of them in total. The first painting is what named the series, which took up more than two dozen canvases and was displayed initially in 1900. For Monet, the paintings became somewhat of a second nature that was inspired by real life. “It took me time to understand my water lilies,” he said. “I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them.”
The Water Lilies set continued on throughout the years, and have proven to be a very popular and lucrative set, even when pieced apart by painting. These works have sold for millions of dollars at some of the most prestigious auction houses in the world, with many of those that are considered to be the masterpieces already being purchased. The most expensive piece in the set was “Nympheas”, which sold for more than $50 million in London in 2014 to an anonymous buyer.
Naturally, Monet’s work had become very expensive after he had drawn close to the end of his life in the 1920s. After having problems with his vision for several years, Monet was also found to have had lung cancer. On December 5, 1926, Monet passed away at the age of 86 and buried in the town where he spent the rest of his days. Now, his former home serves as a monument to Impressionism and Monet’s illustrious career, making him one of the most well known artists of the 20th century.
When it comes to his work, Monet says that Impressionism is about having your own style. “Try to forget what objects you have before you – a tree, a house, a field or whatever,” he said. “Merely think, ‘Here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow,’ and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you your own impression of the scene before you.”