Claude Monet

Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14, l840.  When Claude was five he moved to LeHavre.  He went to school there and he thought it was like a prison.  By the time he was a teenager Claude's teachers found he had a gift for drawing.  Eugene Boudin, a famous artist, started to teach Claude about painting.  Eugene would often take Claude outside to paint.  Claude's dad didn't want him to paint. He wanted him in the family buisness.  Since Claude's mother died he had to ask his aunt for help.  When Claude was eighteen he went to live in Paris.  While Claude was in Paris he met many of the great artists.  Then Claude joined the army to fight in the war in Algeria.  He didn't want to go, but he had to.  When he was in Algeria during the war he wondered if he could capture the sunlight in one of his paintings.  The next year he became sick so he left and went back to France.  His aunt helped him once again by paying a fee to get him out of the army and also by getting his dad to let him come back to Paris.  His family got worried and got him to leave Paris.  When Claude was thirty in 1870  he married a woman named Camille Doncieux.  A little bit later another war began, and Claude didn't want to join again so he moved to London. Claude also had a son named Jean. Claude, his son, and his wife all moved back to France.  And eventually Claude began to sell his paintings.  He didn't get much for his paintings because the art critics thought his style of painting wasn't proper.  But he continued to paint impressions.  He painted things more than once to catch it in a different light. Artists who painted in this style were called impressionists. Soon the impressonists began to get respect and sell more paintings.  In the end he became famous but he still was sad because his wife,son, and second wife died, and he went blind.  But even when he was losing his sight he continued to paint.