by: Cyn Rene’ Whitfield
Oscar-Claude Monet (1840 – 1871) was the second born child of two sons. When Oscar was about five (he was called Oscar until his early twenties) the family moved from urban Paris to a suburb coastal community on the coast of Normandy which provided must of the natural inspiration for his work later in life. Oscar admits he was an unruly student and his notebooks filled with sketches were his only salvation to sanity. He compared school to a prison that couldn’t contain him. His mother died when he was 16 and he left his controlling father to live with his father’s half sister, Marie-Jeanne Lecarde, a successful talented painter in her own right. While neither rich nor cosmopolitan Oscar’s new family entrenches goals and ambitions compliant with middle-class prosperity and social acceptance. Oscar embraces this thinking, but not at the expense of his budding artistic ambitions. For decades, Oscar will struggle with his challenge of attraction toward material and physical comforts and the desire to be an artist. He created a life-long habit of overspending, shopping sprees, and charitable donations well above his means. Later in life Monet was just one step ahead of his creditors. Monet’s neurotransmitters and spending-inducing epinephrine could be related to the death of mother, escaping a controlling father, the loss of his wife, and the chosen profession that monetarily did not fit in with the economic society imprint.
The disorder of compulsive spending is directly related to a feel better mentality and is similar to other addictive behaviors and has some of the same characteristics as alcoholism, gambling and overeating addictions. Compulsive spending can be a quick fix for depression, anxiety, and loneliness expressed to assure more love, bolster self-esteem, or heal the hurts, regrets, stress, and the problems of daily living. It generally makes these feelings worse because of the increased financial debt it creates. Monet’s Impressionist style was greeted with hostility and ridicule and was considered to be ugly and revolutionary because of its borderline abstractionism. Monet believed that the starving artist avant-garde painters must take risks and push viewers to accept the new and shocking tried and true paintings that attract crowds and money. It was this set of conflicting goals that may have created the challenges that lead to his disorder.
In 1869, while working on The Magpie, Monet was feeling surly and unable to work. In addition to his undermining confidence and rejection his anxiety about the family’s income became insurmountable. Even the birth of his new son in 1867 is not enough paternal sentiment to overpower the wielding, controlling father of his past (Monet’s father died in 1871 during Monet’s exile to London to avoid the Franco-Prussian War). The frustration of getting a real paying job was denounced and Monet continued to beg for money and art supplies while still living above his means with the help of mentor Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Although his fame as an artist grows in between 1872 and 1878 (Monet sold 29 pieces to a single buyer) he was rejected as an artist by the prestigious Salon. His personal life begins to decline as his wife, Camille is bedridden and dies in 1879 from cancer of the womb. Monet continues to live beyond his means. By 1890, Monet has become a national treasure and settles into a home life that is the solid, middle-class consistency of his father’s dreams. He buys a house in Giverny and remarries. It is at this time that he creates his greatest works The WaterLillies.
What makes it all amazing is that Monet was able to link his emotional state into his paintings and make the psychological disorder of the cultural and social influences in his life work as expression through his art. What we see in Monet’ works is his struggle with societal norms expressed through the beauty and the many perspectives that surround it. I have often found that I too will find solace in the shopping spree to overcome feelings of depression and anxiety. What continues to work best is picking up a brush and letting the canvas speak to me. I found this C and R paper a very valuable look at the artist and the mindset. Like Van Gogh and Monet, it appears that the term suffering artist may just be the abnormality needed to excel creative greatness.
References:
Kosslyn, S. M., & Rosenberg, R. S. (2007). Fundamentals of Psychology in Context (3rd ed.). Boston
"Addiction". Magill's Medical Guide, 4th Rev. ed.. 01 Dec 2008.
"Stress Response". World Book Science Year. 01 Aug 2009.
Tuchman, Phyllis. "The Monet who wasn't". Lancet 9314(2002):1355.
Do You Have Money Disorder (2010) Retrieved February 12, 2010 from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mind-over-money/201001/
ArtMagick Exhibition Listings (1996) Monet The Impressionist Eye Retrieved February 12, 2010 from http://www.artmagick.com/exhibitions/exhibition.aspx?id=1383&name=monet-impressionist-eye
Morris, Catherine (1999) The Essential Claude Monet NY Wonderland Press
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