Michel Monet

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Group portrait in the garden of Giverny: from left to right are Michel Monet, his father Claude Monet, Fukuko Naruse and his sister-in-law Blanche Hoschedé-Monet as guests, photo from 1921

Michel Jacques Monet (born March 17, 1878 in Paris ; died February 3, 1966 in Vernon ) was the youngest son of the painter Claude Monet . He donated an extensive art collection to the Académie des Beaux-Arts .

Life

Michel Monet was born on March 17, 1878, the son of the painter Claude Monet and his wife Camille at 26 rue d'Édimbourgh in Paris. The parents had been a couple since 1866 and had married in 1870. The older brother Jean was born in 1867. The family lived in very difficult financial circumstances; the father could make little money with his painting. At the time Michel Monet was born, the mother was already suffering from cancer. The family moved to Vétheuil in autumn 1878 for reasons of cost . There they lived in a house with the Hoschedé family. The textile merchant Ernest Hoschedé had previously gone bankrupt with his entrepreneur and frequently commuted between Vétheuil and Paris. His wife Alice Hoschedé took care of her own six children and soon the Monet's children too. The son Jean-Pierre Hoschedé was the same age as Michel Monet and both grew up like siblings. Alice Hoschedé took care of the increasingly ill Camille Monet. She died in 1879 at the age of 32. The Monet and Hoschedé families moved to Poissy in 1881 , with Ernest Hoschedé rarely visiting. The move to Giverny followed in 1883 . Claude Monet and Alice Hoschedé lived there as an unmarried couple with their eight children. It was only after the death of Ernest Hoschedé in 1891 that Claude Monet and Alcie Hoschedé married the following year.

As a child, Michel Monet was portrayed several times by his father. This is how the paintings Michel Monet as a toddler , Michel Monet with a bobble hat and Michel Monet with a blue sweater (all Musée Marmottan Monet , Paris) were created. In addition, Michel Monet can be seen as a staffage figure in some of his father's landscapes. He appears together with Jean-Pierre Hoschedé in Monet's garden in Vétheuil ( National Gallery of Art , Washington DC) or in Jean-Pierre Hoschedé and Michel Monet on the banks of the Epte ( National Gallery of Canada , Ottawa). In addition, he made some drawings in which the father shows his son Michel drawing, writing and reading. This contradicts some assumptions, according to which Monet did not attach importance to the education of his children and Michel Monet as well as his brother were illiterate .

  • Claude Monet: Michel Monet as a toddler , 1878

  • Claude Monet: Michel Monet with bobble hat , 1880

  • Claude Monet: Michel Monet with a blue pullover , 1883

  • Claude Monet: Jean-Pierre Hoschedé and Michel Monet on the banks of the Epte , 1887–1890

  • Claude Monet: Michel Monet writing , drawing

Michel Monet was interested in bicycles and machines in his youth. His father was one of the early owners of a car and in 1901 bought a Panhard & Levassor car . In 1904 Claude Monet took his wife Alice and son Michel on a trip to Madrid, with the first 800 kilometers to Biarritz being covered in three days in their own car. Later Michel Monet had special bodies made for his own vehicles, ran an engine dealership and was an enthusiastic fan of automobile racing .

Families Monet and Hoschedé; from left to right: standing Claude Monet, in front of it Alice Hoschedé sitting, in front of it Michel Monet on the ground, next to Alice are Jean-Pierre Hoschedé, Blanche Hoschedé and Jean Monet, behind is Jacques Hoschedé, in front of them are Martha Hoschedé, Germaine Hoschedé and Suzanne Hoschedé ; unknown photographer, around 1886

In 1897 Michel Monet's brother Jean had married the Hoschedé daughter Blanche . After the death of her mother Alice in 1911 and of Jean Monet in 1914, she moved back to Monet's house in Giverny , where Michel Monet continued to live. She organized the household there and looked after old Claude Monet. During the First World War , Michel Monet and Jean-Pierre Hoschedé served in the army.

Claude Monet died in 1926 and Michel Monet became his sole heir. This included the property in Giverny and his father's extensive art collection. In addition to his own works, this also included works by artist friends. Michel Monet left the house in Giverny to his sister-in-law Blanche. He had a house built for himself in Sorel-Moussel, about 40 kilometers away . There he lived with Gabrielle Bonaventure, with whom he had been married since 1927. The marriage remained childless. Last but not least, sales of paintings from his father's inheritance ensured his livelihood.

In the 1930s, Michel Monet traveled repeatedly to Africa. From there he brought back numerous memorabilia, including ivory, weapons and masks. He also kept monkeys as pets. After the death of his sister-in-law Blanche in 1947, he left his father's house to the care of a gardener. Michel Monet's wife died in 1964. He himself died on February 3, 1966 at the age of 87 in a traffic accident near the Pont Clemenceau in Vernon. He is buried in the Giverny cemetery in the common grave of the Monet-Hoschedé families.

In his last will - he had written a total of 12 wills - he bequeathed his property to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. He also decreed that the art collection should be exhibited in the Musée Marmottan in Paris. When the executor and those in charge of the Académie des Beaux-Arts toured Michel Monet's house, they found an unexpectedly large treasure trove of art, which was also reported in the French newsreel. In their father's house in Giverny they discover other works of art. In total, the collection included more than 80 paintings by his father, as well as drawings, sketchbooks, photographs, letters and personal items. There were also works by artist friends such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Gustave Caillebotte , Paul Signac and Eugène Boudin . As a result of this donation, the museum is now called the Musée Marmottan Monet . Claude Monet's home in Giverny has been open to the public as a museum since 1980.

  • Claude Monet: Vallée de Sasso, effet de soleil , 1884

  • Claude Monet: Le saule pleureur , 1918–1919

  • Claude Monet: Nymphéas reflets de saule , 1916–1919

  • Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Portrait of Camille Monet , 1873

  • Gustave Caillebotte: La leçon de piano , 1881

In 2017, there was speculation about an illegitimate daughter of Michel Monet. The occasion was the auction of individual works of art by Claude Monet as well as of the artist 's memorabilia at Christie's auction house in Hong Kong. These objects came from the estate of Rolande Verneige, who died in 2008. Monet had never recognized such paternity, nor did the deceased strive for it. According to the Monet Foundation, Rolande Verneige's mother was only a friend of Michel Monet's wife and thus came into possession of the objects.

literature

  • Fondation de l'Hermitage (ed.): Claude Monet et ses amis, oeuvres choisies du Musée Marmottan et de collections privées . Bibliothèque des Arts, Lausanne 1993, ISBN 2-85047-219-0 .

Web links

Commons : Michel Monet  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fondation de l'Hermitage: Claude Monet et ses amis, oeuvres choisies du Musée Marmottan et de collections privées , p. 22.
  2. ↑ Fondation de l'Hermitage: Claude Monet et ses amis, oeuvres choisies du Musée Marmottan et de collections privées , pp. 22–24.
  3. ↑ This is claimed, for example, in the article Monet, Wasserrosen unter Dach in Der Spiegel of April 4, 1966.
  4. ↑ For Monet's enthusiasm for automobiles, see L'automobile, son autre passion ... on the website of the Monet Foundation.
  5. ↑ Fondation de l'Hermitage: Claude Monet et ses amis, oeuvres choisies du Musée Marmottan et de collections privées , p. 24.
  6. ↑ Fondation de l'Hermitage: Claude Monet et ses amis, oeuvres choisies du Musée Marmottan et de collections privées , p. 22.
  7. ↑ See, for example, the article Monet, Wasserrosen unter Dach in Der Spiegel of April 4, 1966.
  8. ↑ Fondation de l'Hermitage: Claude Monet et ses amis, oeuvres choisies du Musée Marmottan et de collections privées , p. 22.
  9. ↑ Fondation de l'Hermitage: Claude Monet et ses amis, oeuvres choisies du Musée Marmottan et de collections privées , p. 24.
  10. ^ Report of the French newsreel on the discovery of Michel Monet's legacy in the archives of the Institut national de l'audiovisuel
  11. ^ Béatrice de Rochebouët: Claude Monet: l'héritage retrouvé du maître de l'impressionnisme , article of September 11, 2017 in Le Figaro .
  12. ↑ Interview with Claire Joyes: Monet, un homme bon mais insupportable on the website of the Monet Foundation .
personal data
SURNAME Monet, Michel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Monet, Michel Jacques (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Son of Claude Monet and patron
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 1966
Place of death Vernon