Blanche Eugenie Lucienne Monet

Blanche Hoschedé was a French painter who was both the step daughter and the daughter-in law of Claude Monet.

Hoschedé was the second daughter of Ernest and Alice Hoschede. Her father was a successful businessman and art patron, who by 1878, however, was forced to declare bankruptcy. At that time, the Hoschedés and Monets decided to share a dwelling in Poissy, a Parisian suburb. The ménage consisted of Claude and Camille Monet and their two sons Jean Monet and Jacques Hoschedé, along with Ernest and Alice Hoschedé and their six children.

She was eleven when she discovered the art of painting and obviously spent long hours in the atelier of Claude Monet but also Manet. Monet rented a summer house in Pourville (summer of 1882) and Hoschedé started to paint next to him. Hoschedé became Monet's assistant and pupil . She often carried Monet’s easel, canvases on a wheel barrow, and then set her own easel and painted. Her work was done in plein air as she did not have an atelier. The Hoschedé Monet family share a lot of their times with the American colony. She also painted alongside with John Leslie Breck and Theodore Earl Butler. Breck had a romance with Hoschedé that was halted by Monet. Breck left Giverny in 1892. Butler married Hoschedé’s sister Suzanne after Monet’s approval in 1892.

Hoschedé married Monet’s son, Jean, in 1897. They lived in Rouen and Beaumont-le-Roger until 1913. She painted landscape such as meadows along the Risle’s river but also Poplars and Pines. Upon her husband death in 1914, she moved back to Giverny with Monet. She went to Clemenceau’s House in the southern part of France in Saint- Vincent du Jar with Claude Monet for one week in October of 1921. She went back in 1927, 1928 and 1929 and did some paintings of the House, Garden and the sea. She was called by the French Prime Minister George Clemenceau, "The Blue Angel", as she spent her time taking care of Monet during his crucial times. Hoschedé gave up painting until after Monet’s death. Most of her works were done in Giverny and around Rouen. She painted in Giverny from 1883 to 1897 and then from 1926 to 1947. She eventually decided to have a solo show at Bernheim Jeune, in 1931.

She adopted an almost pure form of impressionism. She painted for her own pleasure. At times it was difficult to distinguish her work from Monet’s especially during her first period in Giverny. The palette, brushes, paint and canvases came from Monet. She then painted Monet’s garden, and its surroundings.

• Reference: MyHeritage Genealogy - SmartCopy: Sep 28 2019, 16:49:51 UTC
• Reference: MyHeritage Genealogy - SmartCopy: Sep 28 2019, 17:27:42 UTC