Claude Monet was one of the most renowned French Impressionist painters of the 19th century. He was born Oscar-Claude Monet on November 14, 1840 in Paris. His father, Adolphe Monet, worked as a grocer, while his mother, Louise-Justine Aubrée Monet, often sang in the local church choir.


When Monet was five years old, his family moved from Paris to Le Havre, a port town in Normandy along the English Channel. The coastlines and seascapes surrounding Le Havre would later become recurring subjects in many of Monet's paintings. However, as a youth, art did not feature prominently in his interests. Instead, he enjoyed exploring the beaches and countryside in his free time.


At the age of fifteen, Monet's aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre, purchased a box of oil paints for him. This piqued his interest in the artistic medium. Monet began creating charcoal caricatures and sketched the urban landscapes surrounding him. His father and the local municipality were impressed with his emerging talents. They granted him a small allowance so Monet could focus more wholly on his artwork instead of prioritizing other jobs or studies.


In 1856, at the age of sixteen, Monet entered the Le Havre secondary school of the arts. He began studying under Jacques-François Ochard, among other teachers and students. However, Monet struggled to fit into the prescribed approach toward painting being taught in the program. He said: "They wanted to make me draw like everyone else. Drawing doesn't consist simply of tracing lines with a pencil. It consists of drawing with one's eyes what one sees. Otherwise, what's the use?"


Instead of conforming, Monet opted to leave school in 1857 to live independently as an artist in the Normandy region. Initially working as a caricaturist who would sell his humorous sketches to locals, his landscape paintings increasingly took precedence. As his style matured, Monet started focusing more on depicting how sunlight and atmospheric conditions altered perceptions of nature at different times of day or seasons of the year.


In 1859, Monet relocated to Paris to study at the Academie Suisse. There he met fellow artist Camille Pissarro, who would go on to be a close friend and mentor to the budding Impressionist. Pissarro helped encourage Monet to begin painting outdoors in natural light rather than just within a studio setting. Monet also met artists like Edouard Manet who provided inspiration and friendship during this period.


However, like most young men of his era, Monet had to interrupt his studies in order to serve in the military. In 1860, he was drafted into the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry. While stationed in Algeria for two years, Monet avoided battle but contracted typhoid fever instead. The sickness was severe enough that the artist thought he might die. Monet credited his survival to his paramour (and later wife) Camille Doncieux, who took great care of him throughout the ordeal.


After the military, Monet struggled greatly from poverty in 1862 and 1863. Occasionally homeless and hungry, he channeled his frustrations into creating emotionally turbulent artwork like Des Glaneuses (The Gleaners). His sympathetic portrayals of impoverished women harvesting wheat fields did not attract buyers or critical acclaim at the time.


The next year proved monumental for the burgeoning painter. Monet entered paintings into an exhibition held by the Salon de Paris, a prestigious art show in France. Out of hundreds that were submitted, the Salon chose to display two seascapes that Monet painted while living in Le Havre – La Pointe de la Hève at Low Tide and The Port of Trouville. The positive exposure introduced Monet's artwork to the Parisian public for the first time.


Emboldened by the success, Monet became more ambitious. He started gathering with other like-minded artists who...