Claude Monet (1840-1926) French, Offset Lithograph. Titled "Vue de Honfleur". Suite: Die Impressionisten. Numbered 270/1000. Published in 1909 by Bruno Cassirer, Berlin. Signed in the stone lower left. Original offset lithograph in blue on paper. Name plate along bottom. Landscape scene depicting lots of boats. Certified by Nathan Daniel Isen, Philadelphia, PA.

Overall Size: 28 1/4 x 32 in.

Sight Size: 7 3/4 x 10 in.

Frame Thickness: 2 3/4 in.

#2009

Oscar-Claude Monet was born in Paris, France on November 14th, 1840. When he was five years old, the family moved to the port town of Le Havre, where they sank into poverty. For much of his childhood he was considered by both his teachers and parents to be undisciplined and therefore, unlikely to make a success of his life. The artist Eugene Boudin, only 16 years older than him, was the first to break through his apathy by showing him painting in the plein air style, and Monet forever considered Boudin his master more than any other artist or school. He refused to take regular courses at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, attending instead the so-called Academy Suisse, a kind of sketching class run by a former model. After doing military service in Algiers he returned to Paris and made the acquaintance of Renoir, Sisley and Bazille. He exhibited in 1865 at the Salon, and within ten years he and his friends had already come to be known as the Impressionists. Monet’s first wife, Camille Doncieux, bore him two sons, Jean and Michel. His liaison with her had estranged him from his family. She died in 1879, and on July 16, 1892, Monet married Alice Hoschede, whose sister Suzanne was Monet’s preferred model.  Alice’s husband Ernest had left her when he had some financial reversals. She was pregnant with her sixth child when he abandoned her; with eight children between them, Monet and Alice moved away and eventually settled in Giverny. In 1923 he underwent two cataract operations which partially restored his eyesight but left him with veiled vision and distorted color perception. He continued to paint until his death on December 5th, 1926, preyed upon by terrible fits of depression and fearful that his whole life had been a failure, despite the fact that his fame, wealth, and popularity had grown exponentially throughout his entire adult life.