Monet’s Memory of Camille: A Theme-Based Analysis of Monet’s Paintings

: Claude Monet was not only a pioneer of Impressionism but also one of the most famous artists in hundreds of years of art history. Although many scholars and art historians have done a lot of research on Monet, the analysis of the relationship between Monet and his wife from the perspective of painting is still lacking. This paper studies and discusses the development of the relationship between Claude Monet and Camille Monet by reading documents, books and letters, and analyzing the paintings that Monet painted for Camille. The conclusion of this paper is that as time passes, Monet became more and more proficient in Impressionistic paintings -- the kind of painting with painterly and visible brushstrokes, light colors, unusual emphasis on light, etc. He painted more and more Camille. His love for Camille culminated in her death from metastatic cervical cancer, which didn’t get over for several years. By studying the development of their relationship in paintings, people can have a better and deeper understanding of Monet himself, his life with Camille, and the meaning behind his paintings, so as to gain a deeper insight into the history of art.


Introduction
Claude Monet, a painter who dedicated his life on paint landscapes and people's lives, was also the pioneer of Impressionism, leading French painting in the second half of the 19 th century [1]. He rose to prominence after the publication of Impression, Sunrise ( Figure 1) in 1872, and has become a master of Impressionism. Not long ago, Édouard Manet created The Luncheon on the Grass ( Figure 5), but it was rejected by the salon because of its "obscene" content and caused controversy [11]. Monet, who wanted to make a name for himself, saw an opportunity, discarded the dross and selected the essence, drew a painting of his own (Figure 6-7) from Manet's subject and decided to send it to the salon. It was this painting that introduced him to Camille Doucieux, his future wife.
Camille has begun work as a model for painters in her teens [12]. She met Monet through the work of Lunch on the Grass and soon fell in love with him. In this painting, Monet painted Camille as the woman in a white dress carrying a plate in the central panel. This painting gives us a glimpse of the impression Monet had on Camille when they first met --quiet, demure and gentle.
Unfortunately, due to Monet's mismanagement of time and the size of Lunch on the Grass, the painting never made it to the salon. So Monet asked Camille to model again and created another painting Woman in a Green Dress (Figure 8). This painting was highly praised by the salon for its unique and delicate light and shade on the silk green dress [13]. At the same time, he became acquainted with Camille, as reflected in the painting Camille with a Small Dog (Figure 9) he did privately for Camille.     The baby in the painting is lying quietly in a white cradle, holding a small rattle-drum and smiling curiously at his mother, Camille, who looks at him tenderly. Unlike Monet's other paintings, which are designed to accurately record light and shadow, this one is warm and full of love, reflected in both its tone and subject matter. It also marked the beginning of the happiest time between Monet and Camille. It doesn't matter about shadow, brushwork, and salon's aesthetic. All we can feel in it is love, love for his son, love for his wife. Love is one of the biggest themes in Monet's paintings and a prequel to his missing of his wife and relatives in his later years.
Monet loved his wife and children deeply. They finally married in 1870 and spent the whole summer at the beach of Trouville, where Monet painted many paintings for Jean ( Figure 12            In 1874, Monet, along with Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and other painters of a similar style, organized an exhibition in Paris called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, which exhibited many artworks including Impression, Sunrise [19]. The exhibition created a furor in Paris, with the critic Louis Leroy commenting that "all the paintings were just 'impressions'", and jokingly named their style as "Impressionism" [20]. It was for this reason that Impressionism finally got its name. The longer the two lived together, the more intense their affection became. Over the next year, as winter turned to spring, Monet painted Camille endlessly: as she embroidered (Figure 23), as she sat in the grass (Figure 24), as she wore a Japanese kimono (Figure 25), as she promenaded with a parasol (Figure 26). His paintings for Camille during this period all reflected the deep love between them, of which The Promenade, Woman with a Parasol (Figure 26) is the most typical. This painting depicts his wife Camille and his son Jean promenading in the meadow. The color of the azure sky and the tender green meadow are reflected in Camille's long white dress. She and Jean are standing on a hill, the wind breeze gently, the clouds flow slowly, grass grow lively.            Camille Monet on her Deathbed (Figure 30) is Monet's last painting for Camille, depicting her death on her deathbed. The dead Camille laid lifelessly on her deathbed with her eyes closed, the bedding wrapped around her just like cold, messy feathers. The entire painting is in blue and purple tones, frozen, still and grieved, just like Monet's emotions when he painted it, which depicts not only Monet's wife but also Monet's heart.
Monet left more than two thousand paintings during his lifetime, except for this one, which has a small heart behind his signature -a testament to his undying love for Camille. After her death, Monet asked a friend to retrieve the medal -the only souvenir Camille had saved -he had pawned at Montpellier, and hung it around Camille's neck and accompanied her forever.

Third Period (1879-1926): Long Missing at Giverny
Because of his wife's death and his lack of income, Monet was devastated for a long time after Camille's death and lived a depressed life for several years, which is reflected in his paintings. 1875, when Camille was still alive, Monet's snowy scene paintings ( Figure 31) were warm, bright, and joyful; However, in 1880, his snowy scenes ( Figure 32) became dilapidated, dead, and hopeless. He tried to relieve his depressed mood by painting. He painted the Seine in winter (Figure 33), the snowy landscape (Figure 34), the road in front of the town (Figure 35), the cliffs ( Figure 36) and the sea in his hometown (Figure 37), but all these scenes were extremely lonely.          Monet hardly painted any more figures after Camille died; he truly became a landscape painter. He began to create series paintings intentionally, such as the Rouen Cathedral series (Figure 38), the Haystacks series ( Figure 39) and the Water Lilies series (Figure 40). The only exception was another two Woman with a Parasol (Figure 41-42), painted for Hoschedè's eldest daughter, later his daughterin-law, in which the girl stands quietly on a hillside with a parasol, just as his wife Camille had done eleven years earlier.
Both Monet and Hoschedè have grown old, their children have grown up. Only Camille is left in time, in Monet's heart.
In 1883, Monet rented the house in Giverny [14]. Seven years later, he saved enough money to buy Giverny and spent the rest of his life there.

Conclusion
Overall, Monet and Camille's relationship, which lasted for 14 years, was loyal, deep, and undying. Although Camille died young and Monet married Alice (the wife of Hoschedè who died in 1891) in 1892, Monet's longing for Camille persisted --as can be seen in his paintings. Future scholars could     begin by studying Monet's relationship with Camille in a specific painting or by comparing two paintings, or to study other aspects of Monet, such as his correspondence with his family, his series paintings, or his financial situation.