Picture of the day

The Road to Louveciennes, the Effect of Snow. 1870. Oil on canvas. Private collection, Chicago, USA.

Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840 but all his impressions as a child and adolescent were linked with Le Havre, the town to which his family moved about 1845. His father had a grocery store there. In his youth he painted caricature portraits and exhibited them in the art supplies store in which Eugene Boudin worked at the time.

In 1870, Monet married his model Camille Doncieux (died in 1879), who bore him his son Jean (1868-1914); in 1879 their second son, Michael, was born. Camille sat for many of Monet's pictures, e.g. The Walkers, Women in the Garden, The Walk. Lady with a Parasol,La Japonaise, and many others. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and a short civil war (Commune) that followed, (all four are Camille).

One can read his Biography here.