I spent most of my childhood at La Havre. People liked me for my caricatures of well-known people. While I was there, I had become good friends with an artist known as Eugene Boudin. He had influenced me to paint outdoors and use oil paints and pastels. During this time my mother had passed away, leaving me no choice but to leave secondary school and live with my aunt.
My first completed painting is called the View from Rouelles. After this, I went off to Paris to enter the Swiss Academy. While I was there I had met two wonderful wonderful artists named Camille Pissarro and Gustave Courbet.
I stayed in Hofleur with my fellow artists, Boudin, Bazelle, Jondkind. Just my luck, I had met my very first lover. Her name was Camille Doncieux. I didn't know it at first but she had become some of the main subjects in my work.
One day when I was at the St-Simeon Farm I had met my very first patron, Mr. Gaudibert. I had submitted my work, the "La Femme En Vert". I felt ecstatic from all the positive feedback I got from the critics. I had also achieved some recognition for my work.
I have befriended other artists such as Edouard Manet. After discovering Manet's painting, he inspired me to make a painting of my own. I called it "en plein air", painted in the Fontainebleau forest. We became really close friends after having long conversations with our close circle of friends at the Cafe des Batignolles. We discussed about art with Paul Cezanne and Emile Zola.
I had my first born son named Jean, with Camille. During this time, I realized that my vision wasn't great as it was compared to what it was before. I was very troubled and frustrated at the time. My family had disowned me because of my connections with Camille. They didn't tolerate the fact that I had gotten her pregnant. None of my paintings shown at the International Maritime Exhibition at La Havre were sold whatsoever. Furthermore, my debts were way over the top and my creditors had to take my canvases just to pay it off. I was extremely depressed and so deprived that I attempted to kill myself.
My hardships had gotten better with the support of my friends and Camille. What helped the most was Mr. Gaudibert. Being the fine gentleman he is, he purchased a life-size portrait of himself. This alone has provided me enough support to pass my hard times. After this, I realize that my career as an artist has finally kicked into gear.
On June 28th in the summer of 1870, I finally married Camille Doncieux. Soon after, the Franco Prussian War had begun. Camille and I went to London for refuge. Later I returned to the village of Argenteuil to work on my paintings. I organized an Impressionism Show. This displayed the arts created by Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, and Boudin at Nadar's Studio.
A second son had come along named Michel. My family and I moved to Wetheuil, sharing households with Ernest and Alice Hoschede. Misfortune had stuck when my wife died. I was sad for days. It was kind of Alice to take care of my children in the place of my wife. We moved to Giverny and lived there for 43 years. My life in Giverny was very peaceful. I occupied myself with gardening, enjoying nature as I painted it.
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