Claude Oscar Monet was born in Paris (France) in the year 1840. Since he was very young he was deeply interested in art. When he was 15 years old, he did an amateur exposition in a store in "El Havre" with some drafts.
Eugene Boudin was pleasantly amazed with those drafts, and offered himself to be his teacher. Monet agreed with pleasure.
Even with the opposition of his father, that hated the idea of his son being an artist, he kept on following his dreams. He had to serve for two years in a military regiment in Algeria. After this, he went to Paris to study painting. There, he met Renoir, Sisley, Bazille... painters like him that became his friends. These artists, with Monet, became great symbols of the impressionist art.
These group of impressionist painters had to fight against those others that preferred a more traditional art. They used to gather in the cafe Guerbois, where they shared ideas, experiences...
In the past, the painters did the drafts outdoors, and finished their artworks in their studios. In the times of Monet, there was an evolution in painting materials: oils, temperas... These materials were not as easily damaged outdoors as before. So this supposed a revolution, and encouraged the artist to paint outdoors. This was called "plein-air".
During the war, Monet was living in Holland and England. Later on, he went back to Paris. It took years for the public to start appreciating Monet's paintings, just like happened with his impressionist friends.
But the perseverance and faith that Monet put in his art had its reward, and his paintings were present in relevant museums of all Europe.
When he was old, he ordered to build a Japanese garden around his house, with a big pond plenty of water lilies. Monet was becoming blind because of suffering cataracts, but this was not an obstacle for making a series of paintings full of aquatic flowers and plants.
When he was operated, he not only was able to see again, but also he could see ultraviolet light, as in the operation was removed a part of the eyes that block these rays. This made him see everything with a blue shade, that explains the colors of his last artistic period.
Claude Monet died when he was 86 years old. When he died, the French government recognized him as one of the biggest landscape painters in Europe.
His works are surrounded with a dream-like halo of peace and harmony. Without a doubt, Claude Monet was the painter of the dreams.
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