Artsmarts
The genius and money: The five people but for whom Claude Monet would have died of hunger
Perhaps the commonest phrase found in Claude Monet’s letters to his friends is the request to enclose a hundred francs with the reply letter. For decades, he was living on the edge of starvation. If he happened to get some money, he was quick and lavish in spending it on wine, expensive food, the trendiest dresses and bonnets for his wife, and on renting a studio close to the Gare Saint-Lazare…