Happy Birthday Monet

Did you know that today is one of my favorite artists’ birthday?  I had the awesome opportunity to view many of his paintings and inspirations in person last spring in Buffalo.  You can read more about the experience here.  To celebrate, some quick fun facts about Claude Monet:

• Claude Monet was born November 14, 1840 and died December 8, 1926
• He died at the age of 86, but if he was still alive today he would be 176 years old
• Monet came from a French working class family which was in contrast to many prominent painters during that time period
• He was an impressionist painter – a term given to the movement by art critic Louis Leroy when reviewing Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” in the first exhibit of the movement in 1874
• The Impressionist movement sought to display the artist’s perception of a subject matter; artists worked en plein air and painted with small touches of paint to capture moments of color and light
• Monet’s wife Camille was the subject of several of his paintings
• Monet designed his own gardens at this home in Giverny and many of his masterpieces were inspired by this beautiful landscape
• He often times reused canvases and because of this many of his paintings may have unknown treasures hidden beneath
• Monet had severe cataracts which may have affected his paintings in later years
• In his last 30 years he painted about 250 oil paintings