Claude Monet

Hello! My name is Claude Monet. A long, long time ago, in the year 1840, I was born in a country called France. When I was a little boy, I did not love going to school, but I did love to draw. I would draw silly, funny pictures of my teachers and my friends. It always made everyone giggle. I always carried a little book with blank pages, called a sketchbook, with me so I could draw anything I saw.

My favorite thing to do was to paint outside in the sunshine. I wanted to paint what sunshine looked like. I loved to watch how the bright light danced on the water and made the leaves on the trees sparkle and shimmer. I even had a special boat that I turned into my very own floating art studio. I would sit in my boat and paint big haystacks, pretty red poppy flowers, and especially my beautiful water lily pond that I built in my own garden.

I did not want my paintings to look exactly like a photograph. I wanted to show you how a moment feels. I used quick, bright strokes with my paintbrush to show the feeling of a sparkly morning or a sleepy, quiet sunset. Some people thought my paintings looked a little fuzzy or like they were not finished. But I was painting an 'impression'—which is like a quick feeling you get from a moment in time.

I painted for my whole life, and I lived to be 86 years old. Today, my paintings of light, water, and pretty flowers hang in big buildings called museums all over the world. People love to look at them and feel the sunshine and happiness I tried to capture with my paintbrush.