Blanche Hoschedé Monet (10 November 1865 – 8 December 1947) was a French
painter who was both the stepdaughter and the daughter-in-law of
Claude Monet.
Early life
Ernest and Alice Hoschedé
Blanche Hoschedé was born in
Paris, the second daughter of
Ernest Hoschedé and
Alice Hoschedé.[2] Ernest was a businessman, a department store magnate in Paris. He collected
impressionist paintings[3] and was an important patron to
Claude Monet early in his career.[4] In 1876, he commissioned Claude Monet to paint decorative panels in the round drawing room, in his residence, the château de Rottembourg,[5] in
Montgeron. In 1877, Ernest Hoschedé went bankrupt and his art collection was auctioned off.[6]
Life with the Monets
Ernest Hoschedé, Alice, and their six children moved into a house in
Vétheuil with Monet, his wife
Camille, and their two sons, Jean and the infant Michel. Ernest, however, spent most of his time in Paris, and eventually went to Belgium. After the death of Camille in Vétheuil on 5 September 1879, Alice and her children continued living with Monet. In 1881, they moved to
Poissy, and finally settled
in their home in Giverny in 1883. Although Ernest and Alice Hoschedé never divorced, Claude Monet and Alice went on living together until after the death of Ernest in 1891. Claude Monet and Alice Hoschedé got married on 16 July 1892.[7][8]
Education
The only child in the Hoschedé-Monet household to become interested in art,[9] Blanche began painting at the age of eleven and developed a fond relationship with Claude Monet. She visited his studio as well as
Édouard Manet's. By the time she was 17 years old, she was Monet's assistant and only student, often painting
en plein air alongside him, painting the same subject with the same colors.[2]
Blanche also painted alongside American expatriates
Theodore Earl Butler and
John Leslie Breck. Monet stopped the romance that had developed between Blanche and Breck, while he allowed Butler to marry Blanche's sister,
Suzanne Hoschedé, in 1892.[2]
The art dealer
Paul Durand-Ruel purchased a Haystack painting by Blanche, and it currently is displayed in Monet's house in Giverny.[10] In January 1888, while in
Antibes, Monet encouraged Blanche to submit a work to the Salon.
Jean and Claude Monet
Blanche married Claude Monet's eldest son,
Jean Monet, in 1897. The couple lived in
Rouen, where Jean worked as a chemist for his uncle Léon Monet,[11] and until 1913 in Beaumont-le-Roger.[2]
Her mother, Alice, died on 19 May 1911, and Jean on 10 February 1914, after a long illness.[12][nb 1] Overcome with grief, Claude Monet suffered from depression and, from that point on, Blanche took over her father-in-law's household. She watched over him as his eyesight was failing him to the point he believed he was going blind.
Georges Clemenceau, their common friend, called her Monet's "Blue Angel".[2][14] After Monet's death on 5 December 1926, and for twenty years until her own in 1947, she took on the responsibility of the
house and gardens at Giverny.[9] She died in
Nice, aged 82.
Career
Most of Blanche's works were done in Giverny from 1883 to 1897, which was similar to that of Monet's work, and around Rouen. She "adopted an almost pure form of
impressionism."[2]
She painted landscapes with trees such as
pines and
poplars, and meadows along the
Risle river. In the 1920s, she also painted on several occasions at Georges Clemenceau's property in
Saint-Vincent-sur-Jard (
Vendée department) in the west of France, where she made paintings of the garden, house and the
Atlantic Ocean.[2] After Monet's death, she remained in Giverny and continued painting. Recognizing her body of work, a street bears her name in the village of Giverny.[2]
Dr.
Janine Burke believes that Blanche may have assisted Monet in the painting of the Grandes Décorations. Monet had trained and encouraged Blanche as an artist. In a chapter on Blanche and Monet in Source: Nature's Healing Role in Art and Writing (2009), Burke comments, "Given the sheer scale of the surfaces to be covered in the Grandes Décorations, it is logical to consider Monet had an assistant, and who better than Blanche?" [15]
Gallery
La Moisson ("The Harvest") by Blanche Hoschedé Monet. Circa 1885. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
Venise, la Salute by Blanche Hoschedé Monet. Private collection.
Plage de la côte normande ("Beach on the Normandy Coast") by Blanche Hoschedé Monet. Early 20th century. Oil on canvas. Musée Alphonse-Georges-Poulain.