you are my muse
an artistic love affair: claude and camille monet
There is something very intimate and romantic about artworks that artists painted with their muses, which they loved. I like to think of art as a lens—something to help see the world through the artist’s paradigm. And when we see their paintings of muses they loved, we are looking through the eyes of someone in love. It’s almost like we are speaking their secret language. This is the case of Claude and Camille Monet.
Claude Monet met Camille-Léonie Doncieux in 1865 when she was 18 and he was 25. Camille began modeling for Claude, and they soon became romantically involved. Two years later, in 1867, they had their first son, Jean. In 1870, they married against the wishes of Claude’s parents and had their second son, Michel, in 1878.
Monet was deeply devoted to Camille. He seldom painted people, being obsessed with capturing the effects of light on natural landscapes, but he painted Camille over and over again. He painted her over fifty times: she was his light.
Camille modeled for some of Monet’s most prominent paintings, such as Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, or Luncheon on the Grass. Here, Camille is the woman sitting in the center, the focus of the painting. Sunlight spills on her arm and on the side of her face. She is dressed in white, while her surrounding companions are dressed in gray and black, making the viewer’s eyes naturally flit to Camille. This is a visual manifestation of Camille being Claude’s light in his life.
Monet started this artwork in the spring of 1865. It was originally meant to be a large work, measuring over four meters by six, but Monet later abandoned the project and kept only three parts, one of which is the painting above. Still, Monet commented about his painting in a letter, “I can think of nothing but my painting and if I had to leave it, I think I would go mad.”
Camille is also the subject of Monet’s masterpiece “Woman with a Parasol.” She is depicted standing in a grassy meadow, surrounded by clouds, posing under a vibrant parasol with her first son, Jean, by her side. It’s overall a beautiful piece of art. As viewers, the work comes as a sensory experience more than a stationary painting—we can almost feel the breeze rippling through Camille’s hair and dress, the sunlight filtering through the clouds.
At the same time, we can sense the ephemeral nature of the moment through its dreamlike quality, enhanced by the striking spontaneity of the painting. Camille is positioned diagonally across the canvas; the ripples in her dress and the slight swaying of the grass, coupled with the shadows the parasol casts across her dress and on the ground, make the art piece seem like a snapshot of a fleeting moment.
Apart from its technical excellence, “Woman with a Parasol” is also a testament to Monet’s love for Camille. In the painting, Monet portrays Camille in a way that is almost angelic. The upward angle at which the artwork is painted magnifies her presence, making her look as if she is filling up the entire work. This is a very literal representation of Monet’s great admiration and esteem for his wife.
Monet also uses primarily warm colors when painting this idyllic scene. This is how he saw Camille, and now us. When we look at this painting, we are looking through the eyes of Monet, through the warm gaze of a lover. In this painting, Monet has forever immortalized Camille and his love for her.
Monet also painted more works of only Camille, without anyone else:
Despite Monet’s profound love for Camille, their relationship was tumultuous. Monet’s parents disapproved of his relationship with Camille and refused to provide financial support for Monet. As an artist, Monet was extremely poor and in debt. He could not provide for Camille and his two sons alone. When things got desperate, he and Camille would repeatedly separate for Monet to receive his parents’ financial aid. Despondent at his economic situation, Monet once attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Seine. It was in 1868, a year after the birth of his first son, Jean.
When Camille became ill from cervical cancer after delivering her second son, Monet was inconsolable. In the days leading up to her death, Monet never left her bedside. He captured her final moments in his painting “Camille on Her Deathbed”, painted in 1879.
[Claude Monet, looking at the dead body of his first wife Camille, 5 Sept 1879]
“Watching her tragic forehead, almost mechanically observing the colors which death was imposing on her rigid face. Blue, yellow, grey, what do I know? How natural to want to reproduce the last image of her, who was leaving forever.”
This is almost a direct juxtaposition of Monet’s other paintings, which are characterized by their thin impasto strokes, soft edges, and spontaneity. Here, the brushstrokes are shorter, harder, more defined. Almost angry in a way. This is a vividly rendered portrait of Monet’s grief and paint brought to paper.
There is no sense of movement or vibration. Camille is lying with her eyes closed, cocooned in Monet’s stiff brushstrokes. Still, there is an underlying similarity between this painting and Monet’s many others. In them, he captures the beauty and anguish of ephemeral moments, whether it be the fleeting effects of light or the last moments of his wife’s short life.
In the painting, Camille is shrouded in muted purple and grey brushstrokes that echo colors of mourning or death. In some ways, they look like wings, referencing the afterlife. This altogether gives the impression that Camille is fading. Already, most of her body is impossible to see; only her face remains as if she is being pulled under.
Perhaps Monet wanted a visual representation of him drowning in his grief. Or perhaps Monet hoped that by painting her, he could memorialize her with his art and in his memories. Art has always been Monet’s chosen form of expression—it is what he used to immortalize his love for Camille when she was living. Thus, it is only fitting that he would use it again to immortalize his grief for her after her passing.
Whatever the reason was, it is clear that art was forever Camille and Claude’s secret language, from the moment they met to their last moments together.
i went to my first monet exibit when i was 5 and i remember having a tour guide and never once did they mention his muse, his wife, the woman behind the man, thank you for shedding light on an artist so well known and beloved and the woman behind him this entire time
Oh what a beautiful (and unique) piece !!! such a breath of fresh air on the (already) great newsletters ive been reading. excitex to read more of this!