Claude Monet's Tulip Fields at Sassenheim (1886) by Frank Zuidam

Monet moved to Le Havre with his family when he was about five years old. He fulfilled his military service in Algeria in 1861-1862, which may have influenced his later choice to mainly paint landscapes.

Monet began painting with Charles Gleyre in Paris. In 1867 he and Renoir lived with Frédéric Bazille. In the following years he shared a studio in Paris with Bazille. From probably 1865 Monet had a relationship with Camille Doncieux. In 1867 their first son, Jean, was born in Paris. The couple married in the summer of 1870. They spent their honeymoon in Trouville, but because of the war between France and Prussia, they fled to London. Via the Netherlands, including four months in Zaandam and a short stay in Amsterdam, they returned to France, to settle in Argenteuil in 1871. This place was easily accessible from the Paris Saint-Lazare station, of which Monet painted several works. During this period, Monet became briefly prosperous, as his paintings sold well.

He was friends with Frédéric Bazille, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet and Julien Schaeverbeke.

In 1878, the second son, Michel, was born shortly before the Monet family moved to Vétheuil. Camille died in 1879. In the meantime Monet also lived with Alice Hoschedé and her husband Ernest. As this ratio was unusual at the time, it led to much rumor and to Monet's removal from his fellow painters. In 1883 this household moved to Giverny with their eight children. In 1891 Ernest died, after which Monet and Alice got married. From that moment on, a prosperous household emerged. Alice died in 1911, followed in 1914 by Monet's eldest son Jean. Jean was married to Alice's second daughter, Blanche. As a widow, Blanche took care of the aging painter, who began to develop the cataract, which caused Monet to see a red haze. It is possible that surgery for cataracts allowed Monet to see some ultraviolet light waves normally blocked by the eye's lens

In 1926, Monet died of lung cancer at the age of 86 and left his possessions to his son, Michel. The house, garden and water lily pond that Michel had inherited from Claude Monet were donated to the Académie des beaux-arts in 1966 by Monet's son. In 1980, the house and garden were opened to the public