Claude Monet - Influence of American oil painter Jeff Starr. Among the Impressionists, Monet and Renoir were always neck-and-neck with me if I was asked about my favorite. But I have to give it to Monet because of his guts...he really paved the way for so many artists that followed. He was ridiculed at his initial Paris exhibitions but continued on undaunted. And the older he got, the more abstract his paintings became. What is also admirable is his longevity. His work done at his home in Giverny while an old man is some of his best and most famous.

Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the ninth arrondissement of Paris. He was the second son of Claude-Adolphe and Louise-Justine Aubree Monet, both of them second-generation Parisians. On 20 May 1841, he was baptised in the local parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as Oscar-Claude. In 1845, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy. His father wanted him to go into the family grocery business, but Monet wanted to become an artist. His mother was a singer.

When Monet traveled to Paris to visit the Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old masters. Monet, having brought his paints and other tools with him, would instead go and sit by a window and paint what he saw. Monet was in Paris for several years and met several painters who would become friends and fellow impressionists. One of those friends was Edouard Manet.

At the beginning of May 1883, Monet and his large family rented a house and 2 acres from a local landowner. The house was situated near the main road between the towns of Vernon and Gasny at Giverny. There was a barn that doubled as a painting studio, orchards and a small garden. The house was close enough to the local schools for the children to attend and the surrounding landscape offered an endless array of suitable motifs for Monet's work. The family worked and built up the gardens and Monet's fortunes began to change for the better as his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel had increasing success in selling his paintings. By November 1890 Monet was prosperous enough to buy the house, the surrounding buildings and the land for his gardens. During the 1890s Monet built a greenhouse and a second studio, a spacious building well lit with skylights.