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=Oscar Claude Monet =

 If you have heard of Oscar Claude Monet you may know him as an artist or more specifically an impressionist, but you may not know that he was born in Paris, France November 14, 1840 and once was disowned by the Monet family because of his association with Camille (later his wife) who he had a child with. Also you may not know that Oscar Claude Monet came near suicide in the summer of 1868 after he, his wife and child were thrown out of the lodgings he took at Fe`Camp (somewhere in France). But the point of this essay is not to tell you all of the ways you might not know the great artist Claude Monet but to tell you a few mind-blowing facts about him. As the child of a singer and the owner of a family grocery business, he was expected to continue the family business but at a young age Monet decided that he wanted to become an artist. On April 1, 1851 Monet enrolled into the Le Havre secondary school of the arts. Locals knew him for his works and Monet began to sell them for at least ten to twenty francs (about 2 to 4 U.S. dollars). Monet took his first drawing lessons from Jacques-Francois Orchard, who was a former student of Jacques-Louis David. In about 1856/1857 Monet met fellow artist Eugene Boudin, who later became Monet's mentor and began to teach him to use oil paints. Boudin taught Monet "en plein air" (outdoor) techniques for painting. At the age of 16 Monet left home to leave with his widowed and childless aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre. Monet and Camille Doncieux had married just before the Franco-Prussian War on June 28, 1870 and in December 1871 the couple moved to Argenteuil. During this time Monet painted various works of modern life. In 1876, Camille sadly became ill. Two years later the couple had their second son Michel, this child weakened her already fading health. In the same year Monet moved to the village of Vetheuil. On September 5, 1879, Camille Monet died of tuberculosis aa the ge of 32; Monet painted her on her death bed. After several depressing months after Camille's death, a grieving Monet begin to create some of his best paintings of the 19th century. During the early 1880s monet painted several groups of landscapes and seascapes in what he considered to be campaigns to document the French countryside. His creative campaigns evolved into his series' paintings. Between 1883 and 1908, Monet traveled to the Meditterranean,where he painted landmarks, landscapes, and seascapes. He painted an important series of paintings in Venice, Italy, and in London he painted two inportant seriesâ€”views of Parliament and views of Charing Cross Bridge. His second wife, Alice died in 1911 and his oldest son Jean, who had married Alice's daughter Blanche, Monet's particular favorite, died in 1914. After his wife died, Blanche looked after and cared for him. It was during this time that Monet began to develop the first signs of cataracts. But Monet died from lung cancer on December 5, 1926 at the age of 86 and is buried in the Giverny church cemetery.

   