Claude Monet

AKA:

The Dandy

Birth Name:

Oscar-Claude Monet

Birth Date:

November 14, 1840

Birth Place:

Paris, France

Death Date:

December 5, 1926

Place of Death:

84 Rue Claude Monet, Giverny, France

Age:

Cause of Death:

Lung cancer

Cemetery Name:

Cimetière de Giverny

Claim to Fame:

Artists

Claude Monet was a French painter and a founder of the Impressionist movement, best known for his vibrant landscape paintings that capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. Born on November 14, 1840, in Paris, Monet grew up in Le Havre, where he began his artistic journey by drawing caricatures. He later studied art in Paris and was deeply influenced by artists like Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind, who introduced him to painting outdoors, or en plein air. In the 1870s, Monet and other like-minded artists began exhibiting works that emphasized color, light, and movement over realistic detail, leading to the birth of Impressionism—a term derived from his painting Impression, Sunrise (1872). Despite early criticism, Monet persisted and eventually gained recognition. He spent the latter part of his life in Giverny, where he created his most famous series of water lilies, haystacks, and Rouen Cathedral paintings.

Fun Facts

One of the most recognizable images in art history, in May 2019, Meules by Claude Monet sold for double its pre-estimated value of $55 Million. The gavel came down at full force when a bid of $97 Million dollars bellowed the walls of the Sotheby’s auction room on May 14^th, 2019. With fees, the piece came to be $110.7 Million dollars, this winning bid shattered Monet’s previous record. Not only did Meules take the cake on validating the value of the French Impressionist, the bid on this piece made it the first Impressionist piece to surpass $100 Million!

Michel Monet (1878-1966) was the second son of Claude Monet and Camille Doncieux. When Claude Monet died on 5 December 1926, he inherited his father’s property in Giverny and Claude Monet’s extensive collection of paintings and Japanese prints. A passionate traveller, hunter and motorist, he spent an important part of his life on safari in Africa. As needed, he pulled one of the hundreds of artworks, including works by his father as well as Renoir, Pissarro, Degas, Berthe Morisot, Sisley, Delacroix, Boudin, and Caillebotte, taking one out from time to time to sell in order to finance his lifestyle. On his way back, as he did every week, from the Giverny cemetery where his wife Gabrielle Bonaventure (1890-1964) is buried, Michel Monet died in a car accident on the Clemenceau bridge in Vernon on 3 February 1966.

Since Michel did not have an heir to his fortune in artwork, he had made the Académie des beaux-arts his universal legatee. In this capacity, the Academy defends Claude Monet’s rights, owns la Maison et les jardins de Claude Monet in Giverny, and manages Michel Monet’s extraordinary art collection which are now on display at the Musée Marmottan Monet.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Cimetière de Giverny

27620

Giverny, ,

France

Europe

Grave Location:

Monet Family Plot

Grave Location Description

As you leave Monet’s house, turn left down the main street (rue Claude Monet). You’ll pass the Musée des Impressionismes and its Terra Café, as well as various galleries, studios, cafés, and shops. After ten or fifteen minutes you’ll arrive at the church of Giverny, whose official name is Église Sainte-Radegonde de Giverny. Built mostly in the 15th and 16th centuries, this is the church that Monet attended and where he and his family are buried. The Monet family grave is behind the church, a white marble structure with lots of flowers, topped by a cross. Artist Claude Monet’s memorial stone is at the center front of the monument.