“Camille on Her Death Bed” by Impressionst Claude Monet, 1879
“Camille on Her Deathbed” (1879)
Credit: Rlbberlin
There is no better poster-child for impressionism than Claude Monet. Even if you don’t know much about Monet, chances are you’ve seen some form of his water lilies on everything from mugs to mousepads.
The French painter was born Oscar-Claude Monet in 1840. Monet struggled with lung cancer and finally died at the age of 86 in 1926. The painter passed away in his now-famous garden estate at Giverny, not too far away from his hometown of Paris. And when he died, Monet left behind a legacy of artistic talent and innovation. Monet played with color and light in a way no one had ever seen before; he embraced the fluidity of the world around him en plein air (outside) and used broad, unrestrained brushstrokes not only to create the composition of a landscape, but to instill in it a sense of true feeling.
Camille models the latest fashions in Monet’s “The Woman in the Green Dress” (1866)
Credit: wikipedia.com
But Monet could not have achieved half of his fame or success without his artistic muse and counterpart in life, his wife Camille Doncieux (1847–1879).
Camille was described as an assez convenable (quite suitable) wife by Monet’s friend Frédéric Bazille. And it was true, if not an understatement. Camille was a beautiful, well-educated woman who came from a respectable family in the provinces of France. By the time she met Monet in Paris, she had already been modeling for other aspiring artists of the Parisian Salon scene.
Monet and Camille shared the same desire to enrich their lives with all the modernities of 19th century Paris. The world’s first department store, Le Bon Marché, opened its doors here in 1852. The store offered the emerging middle-class a taste of richesse, with new fashions that felt liberating because they combined grandeur with unprecedented accessibility. And Camille modeled them all in Monet’s paintings. Soon, she became known as la reigne de Paris–the queen of Paris.
“Camille Monet sur son lit de mort,” or “Camille on Her Deathbed” (1879) is one of Monet’s most powerful paintings of his wife, if not the most poignant; the canvas captures a real tenderness and unwavering love between Camille and Claude. Towards the end of her life, Camille suffered greatly from dyspepsia and other medical complications that followed the birth of her children. She died at the age of 32, leaving Monet in a state of immense grief which he channeled into a complex piece of art.
Claude and Camille
Credit: mydailyartdisplay.com
“Camille on Her Deathbed” is, in many ways, not much different from another of Monet’s impressionist landscapes; he has captured the fleeting nuances of color as they change with time in a way that’s reminiscent of his many seascapes, or his paintings of Notre Dame. But this time, Camille was Claude’s landscape.”You cannot know,” he said to a friend about painting the picture, “the obsession, the joy, the torment of my days…I was at the deathbed of a lady who had been, and still was very dear to me…I found myself staring at [her] tragic countenance, automatically trying to identify” things like “the proportions of light.” It is a real testament to Monet’s dedication to painting.
But more importantly, it is a testament to the fact that his relationship with Camille was, and would continue to be, inextricably bound to him through his art in a way that transcends death.
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It is one of the most tragic paintings and one must applaud the heart of Monet to draw his wife on death bed.This dedication to his work and love to his wife became a hallmark for the man who rejuvenated the world of arts.
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Thanks for posting the blog regarding Monet’s painting“Camille on Her Death Bed.” Last year I was in Frankfurt, Germany and visited an exhibition, ‘The Birth of Impressionism.’ Included was Monet’s painting. Seeing it in the flesh (so to speak) was extremely moving and strangely uplifting. There was also something disconcerting about it, especially when you consider that Monet insisted that he didn’t want the painting to be exhibited. I wrote a poem about the painting in which I tried to capture how Camille may have felt. See below:
Camille
A blizzard of blue
obscures my face;
a deathly bridal veil
dissolving
my evanescent skin.
I am sinking
into these fluid sheets,
my essence melting
from your sight.
Deliquescing.
In life your eyes
explored every atom
of oily malleability,
stripping me bare.
I was your landscape.
Now I watch you
standing there,
night and day,
trying to catch the
colour of mortality,
the light of my fall,
the moment
these atoms disappear
into the white of my
vanishing point.
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Wow. That is quite a poem. Thank you.
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The same John Nicol that showed at Desoussa in Detroit in 2015?
And showed Good Times, Bad Times?
Your work is genius!
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Thanks for your poem very kind.
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You captured the possibilities beautifully.
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Hi Robert
No, not that John Nicol. I am English and live in the UK. I write for my own enjoyment and for friends. I have been to the US but not Detroit. I had a wonderful time driving a car from New York to Williamsburg, Virginia. I met many lovely American people: warm, friendly, kind, and generous. John
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John Nicol, your poem is beautiful & evocative, perhaps capturing just what poor, dying Camille was experiencing in her final days. I’m enraptured by it. Thank you for sharing your poetry! ❤
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One of the secrets exposed in PRDS Paradise The Secret Garden published by Austen Macauley is what one sees if one turns the picture upside down, namely Camille being re born.
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I used to take some of the rarest plants in Britain to Paris.It led !e to have lunch with Gerald Van De Kemp in Giverny.
I took water lilies.
Another time I saw the painting of Camille on her death Bed.What you need to do is turn it upside down and she is being reborn.One of many secrets exposed in PRDS,Paradise The Secret Garden.
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