Frammenti di luce e di colore Una finestra sull'Impressionismo | Page 52

fig. 1:
Claude Monet,
Donne in giardino,
1866; olio su tela,
205x255 cm, Parigi,
Musée d’Orsay
be used as a floating studio. In 1874 he
showed his work “Impression: Sunrise”
(painted in 1872 in Le Havre, the place
where he grew up) at the first impressio-
nist exhibition. In 1876 he knew Ernest
Hoschedé, a collector and financier, and
he moved with his own family and Ho-
schedé’s to Vétheuil. After giving birth to
two babies, Jean and Michel, Camille died
from cancer, in 1879. In 1883 Monet mo-
ved to Giverny, the place where he stayed
until his death. Here, he painted his most
famous artworks, like the series of Water
Lilies, grainstacks, poplars. These series
are composed by paintings that represent
the same subject but with different light
and colours. In 1892, Monet got married
to his second wife Alice Hoschedé, who
became widowed after Ernest Hoschedé’s
death. From 1892 to 1893, Monet rented
an apartment in Rouen, and made his fa-
mous series of Rouen cathedral. In 1893,
he began the construction of his famous
water garden in his property in Giverny.
Monet let a branch of the Seine flow strai-
ght to his garden, which he filled with
plants and flowers (accosted according
to their colors), growing spontaneously
without any human intervention. In this
last years, Monet had to face Alice’s death
in 1911, and got cataracts: despite his eye
disease, he continued to paint until his
death. His favourite subjects were water
lilies, of which exist at least 200 different
paintings. In 1922 he gave to the French
state 12 canvas with Water Lilies, setted
in the Orangerie museum. He died in Gi-
verny in 1926 from lung cancer.
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