Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet

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Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet

Sometimes he dreamt he held her; that he would turn in bed and she would be there. But she was gone and he was old. Nearly seventy. Only cool paint met his fingers. â€œMa trÃ¨s chÃ¨re . . .â€ Darkness started to fall, dimming the paintings. He felt the crumpled letter in his pocket. â€œI loved you so,â€ he said. â€œI never would have had it turn out as it did. You were with all of us when we began, you gave us courage. These gardens at Giverny are for you but Iâ€™m old and youâ€™re forever young and will never see them. . . .â€
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In the mid-nineteenth century, a young man named Claude Monet decided that he would rather endure a difficult life painting landscapes than take over his fatherâ€™s nautical supplies business in a French seaside town. Against his fatherâ€™s will, and with nothing but a dream and an insatiable urge to create a new style of art that repudiated the Classical Realism of the time, he set off for Paris.
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But once there he is confronted with obstacles: an art world that refused to validate his style, extreme poverty, and a war that led him away from his home and friends. But there were bright spots as well: his deep, enduring friendships with men named Renoir, CÃ©zanne, Pissarro, Manet â€“ a group that together would come to be known as the Impressionists, and that supported each other through the difficult years. But even more illuminating was his lifelong love, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter and embrace the lively Bohemian life of their time.
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His muse, his best friend, his passionate lover, and the mother to his two children, Camille stayed with Monetâ€”and believed in his workâ€”even as they lived in wretched rooms, were sometimes kicked out of those, and often suffered the indignities of destitution. She comforted him during his frequent emotional torments, even when he would leave her for long periods to go off on his own to paint in the countryside.
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But Camille had her own demons â€“ secrets thatÂ Monet could never penetrate, including one that when eventually revealed would pain him so deeply that he would never fully recover from its impact. For though Camille never once stopped loving the painter with her entire being, she was not immune to the loneliness that often came with being his partner.
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A vividly-rendered portrait of both the rise of Impressionism and of the artist at the center of the movement, Claude and Camille is above all a love story of the highest romantic order.

Country	USA
Author	Stephanie Cowell
Binding	Hardcover
EAN	9780307463210
Edition	First Edition
ISBN	0307463214
Label	Crown
Manufacturer	Crown
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	352
PublicationDate	2010-04-06
Publisher	Crown
ReleaseDate	2010-04-06
Studio	Crown

Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet

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