Blanche Hoschedé Monet (1865 – 1947)
Blanche Hoschedé Monet, the second daughter of Ernest and Alice Hoschedé was born on
November 10, 1865, in Paris. Although Ernest was a businessman, he was also an art
collector of impressionist paintings. The Hosched éMonet families later moved to Vétheuil, and after Alice’s death, they settled in Giverny in 1883, where Ernest passed away in 1891.
Blanche developed a strong fondness for Claude Monet at a young age, as she was
introduced to painting when she was only eleven years old. She spent long hours in the ateliers of both Claude Monet and Manet, and when Claude Monet rented a summer house in Pourville in the summer of 1882, Blanche began painting alongside him. She soon became Monet’s assistant and pupil, carrying his easel and canvases on a wheelbarrow, and setting up her own easel to paint in plein air since she did not have her own atelier.
The Hoschedé Monet family often spent time with the American colony, and Blanche
painted alongside John Leslie Breck and Theodore Earl Butler. Blanche and John Leslie Breck had a romance that was stopped by Claude Monet, and John Leslie Breck left Giverny in 1892. Later that year, Theodore Earl Butler married Blanche’s sister Suzanne, with Claude Monet’s approval.
Blanche married Claude Monet’s son, Jean, in 1897, and they lived in Rouen and Beaumont-le-Roger until 1913. Blanche painted landscapes, such as meadows along the Risle River, Poplars, and Pines. After her husband’s death in 1914, she returned to Giverny to be with Claude Monet. She visited Clemenceau’s House in Saint-Vincent-du-Jar in the southern part of France with Claude Monet in October of 1921 and painted the house, garden, and sea during her visits in 1927, 1928, and 1929.
Blanche was called The Blue Angel by French Prime Minister George Clemenceau for taking care of Claude Monet during his difficult times. She gave up painting until after Claude Monet’s death, and most of her works were done in Giverny and around Rouen. She painted in Giverny from 1883 to 1897 and again from 1926 to 1947. She held a solo exhibition at Bernheim Jeune in 1931, adopting an almost pure form of impressionism.
Her paintings often resembled Monet & especially during her first period in Giverny, as she used the same palette, brushes, paint, and canvases that Claude Monet did. Blanche primarily painted Claude Monet & garden and its surroundings for her own pleasure.
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