Blanche Hoschedé Monet
Blanche Hoschedé Monet was a French painter who was both the stepdaughter and the daughter-in-law of Claude Monet. The story is a bit complicated! Blanche was the second daughter of Ernest Hoschedé, a businessman and department store magnate in Paris who was also a collector of Impressionist paintings and an important patron to Claude Monet early in his career. But in 1877, Ernest Hoschedé went bankrupt and his art collection was auctioned off.
Then Ernest Hoschedé, his wife 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 spent most of his time in Paris, however, 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 married on 16 July 1892.
So here we are with Blanche. She became Monet's assistant and pupil, often carrying his easel and his canvases in a wheelbarrow, and then set her own easel and painted. She began submitting works to the Salon in 1888, but that year she was not accepted. Seven of her paintings appeared at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, where Durand-Ruel purchased one of her works. She adopted an almost pure form of Impressionism, painting for her own pleasure. At times it was difficult to distinguish her work from Monet's, especially during her first period in Giverny (between 1883 and 1897). The palette, brushes, paint, and canvases came from Claude Monet, and her subjects were often Monet's garden and its surroundings.
Blanche Hoschedé married Monet's elder son Jean in 1897, and the couple moved to Rouen where she often exhibited her works. Jean died in 1914, at which point Blanche moved back into the Monet household; she abandoned her activities as an artist to take care of Monet during the final 20 years of his life in a role much like an administrator.
P.S. It's the last day of Women's History Month but worry not, we will continue our mission to feature as many women artists as possible in DailyArt and the DailyArt Magazine. Stay tuned! : ) In the meantime, pay a visit to the amazing garden of Giverny here. <3