Impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...
painter
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
.
Early life
According to unsourced genealogical data reported by Michael Legrand, she was born Angélique Émilie Alice Raingo on February 19, 1844, in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
to Denis Lucien Alphonse Raingo and his wife Jeanne Coralie Boulade.
Marriage to Ernest Hoschedé
After meeting her future daughter-in-law in 1863, Ernest Hoschedé's mother wrote of Alice:
Her children (by
Ernest Hoschedé
Ernest Hoschedé (18 December 1837 – 19 March 1891) was a department store magnate in Paris.Blanche (who married Claude's son, Jean Monet), Germaine, Suzanne, Marthe, Jean-Pierre, and Jacques.
Life with the Monet family
In 1876, Ernest Hoschedé commissioned Monet to paint decorative panels for the ''Château de Rottembourg'' and several landscape paintings. According to the ''Nineteenth-century European Art: A Topical Dictionary'', it may have been during this visit that Monet began a relationship with Alice and her youngest son, Jean-Pierre, may have been fathered by Monet.
Ernest Hoschedé went bankrupt in 1877. Ernest, Alice, and their children moved into a house in
Vétheuil
Vétheuil () is a commune on the Seine, 60 kilometers northwest of Paris, France. Vétheuil is located in the arrondissement of Pontoise in the Val-d'Oise department.
Personalities
Impressionist painter Claude Monet lived in Vétheuil from 187 ...
with Monet, Monet's first wife Camille, and the Monets' two sons, Jean and Michel. Ernest spent increasing lengths of time in Paris. He then lived in Paris and worked at '' le Voltaire''.
There are times when Ernest Hoschedé returns to visit his wife and children at the successive Monet households of Vetheuil, Poissy and Giverny. During those times Monet leaves the household. The separation from Alice, though, leaves Monet greatly distressed, experiencing nightmares, and generally unable to paint.
Before the Monet and Hoschedé families had moved to Poissy, Ernest Hoschedé had refused to pay his share of the upkeep for Alice and the children. In 1886 he showed up and demanded that his wife and children return with him to Paris, but Alice remained with Monet.
Relationship with Claude Monet
After Camille Monet's death in 1879, Monet and Alice (along with the children from the two respective families) continued living together at
Poissy
Poissy () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. Inhabitan ...
. Still married to Ernest Hoschedé and living with Claude Monet, the ''Le Gaulois'' newspaper in Paris declared that she was Monet's "charming wife" in 1880.
Ernest Hoschedé died in 1891 and Alice agreed to marry Monet in 1892.
Alice died on 19 May 1911. Her disappearance deeply affected the painter. On the night of her death, he wrote to his friend,
Gustave Geffroy
Gustave Geffroy (1 June 1855 – 4 April 1926) was a French journalist, art critic, historian and novelist. He was one of the ten founding members of the literary organisation Académie Goncourt in 1900.
Geffroy is noted as one of the first histo ...
, a French art historian and novelist: This letter is on display in one of the rooms of
Fondation Monet in Giverny
The Fondation Claude Monet is a nonprofit organisation that runs and preserves the house and gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny, France, where Monet lived and painted for 43 years. Monet was inspired by his gardens, and spent years transformi ...
.Foundation Claude Monet in Giverny Retrieved on 6 September 2020.
Paintings of Alice
Some of the paintings of Alice Hoschedé Monet are:
* Claude Monet, ''Breakfast under the Tent, Giverny'', 1888
*
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and mor ...
, ''Mme Hoschedé and Her Son in Monet's Garden, Giverny
* John Singer Sargent, ''Claude Monet Painting''
In popular culture
Amanda Root
Amanda Root (born 1963) is an English stage and screen actress and a former voice actress for children's programmes.
Root is known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's ''Persuasion'', her role in the British ...
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...