So you think you know Claude Monet?
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Ahead of Monet: Impression Sunrise, the National Gallery of Australia's assistant director of exhibitions and collections, Adam Worrall, shared some of his Claude Monet facts.
1. Monet and his caricatures
When Monet was a teenager he would sell caricatures of people he grew up with in Le Havre at the local frame store for 20 francs each.
"Even as a young kid, as a young artist, people knew him in Le Havre for his caricatures of people - so while he wasn't a famous artist until much later in his career, people knew who he was," Mr Worrall said.
"He applied a few times to try and get into one of the Paris art schools but I think the guys that were doing the assessment ... wouldn't let him in because they didn't think he was a serious artist, because his folio was full of these caricatures."
2. Monet and Eugene Boudin
Monet: Impression Sunrise includes works by Eugene Boudin, one of Monet's inspirations. But what you might not know is that Boudin was also Monet's mentor.
"Eugene Boudin owned the local art supply store, so young Monet was going in buying art supplies from this guy, who was quite a well-known artist and Boudin was encouraging him," Mr Worrall said.
"For a 15-year-old to be getting advice from a quite well-known artist at that time was something that his family thought was a bit strange and Boudin was encouraging him [saying] 'You don't need to go to art school. Just paint what you want to paint', and that's really what led him to paint all of these amazing paintings in the show, having mentors that said you don't need to go to art school to paint, you are a good painter."
3. Monet and Haystacks
One of the two Monet artworks owned by the National Gallery of Australia is called Haystacks, midday, and it's part of a series of at least 30.
"Our painting was bought by a lady called Bertha Porter who was married to a Chicago millionaire businessman, and she went to Paris on one of her trips in 1891 and she bought six of these paintings, she loved them so much," Mr Worrall said.
"We don't know if she bought them directly from Monet or if she bought it from Monet's dealer.
"Our painting stayed in her family for a very long time and the other painting that just sold at Sotheby's for $A160 million was another one of the paintings that she bought.
"So our painting and the painting just sold were both works she bought in 1891. They were sort of brother and sister paintings, painted exactly the same way, in the same summer in 1890."
4. Monet and his time in Africa
In the 1860s a young Monet was drafted into the First Regiment of the African Light Cavalry for Algeria.
"So he spent seven or eight years in Africa and ... there are quotes of him saying that time in Africa really affected his painting style," Mr Worrall said.
"He really learnt to look at light in a different way because the light in Africa was totally different to the light he'd seen elsewhere in the world, and that's what made him try and have an amazing appreciation for how light changes the atmosphere, how light changes the landscape."
5. Monet and his son Michel
Monet's son Michel inherited all of the artist's works as well as Giverny, the garden house in Normandy.
"I didn't know he inherited something like 80 water lily paintings," Mr Worrall said.
"He didn't sell a lot of his water lily paintings and I didn't know that he kept them all, which is why the Musee Marmottan has the biggest collection of Monets in the world, because he gifted everything - including all of the paintings and all of the sketchbooks, and the house - everything to Musee Marmottan.
"I've learnt, just this week, that the sketches that Monet did in 1890 when he was standing in the field of his neighbour's farm in Giverny doing our Haystacks paintings, all of the sketches that Monet did in the summer of 1890 are now in the collection of the Marmottan and they're going to get us some images of them so we can have a look and see how he originally sketched that painting."
6. Monet and Waterloo Bridge
Included in Monet: Impression Sunrise is Waterloo Bridge, a painting from the private collection of Kerry Stokes.
"This painting is unglazed and has never been varnished. It has a paint surface like no other Monet that I have ever seen," Mr Worrall said.
"It's soft and powdery, and it's an unfinished painting but the surface of this painting is totally different to every other Monet in the world.
"It looks like it's been done in pastels and looks like he finished painting it yesterday and just walked away. It's not chalky at all, it's all solid and in amazing condition but it looks different to every other painting."