Mental Health Struggles

Throughout his life, Monet experienced periods of severe depression. His letters reveal a man often on the edge of despair, questioning his abilities and the value of his work. "I am good for nothing," he wrote during one dark period. "I'm like a madman, I want to paint everything before me."

These depressive episodes were triggered by various factors—financial stress, critical rejection, artistic frustration, and personal loss. The death of Camille in 1879 precipitated a particularly severe crisis. The loss of his son Jean in 1914 and Alice in 1911 brought renewed darkness. During World War I, with death and destruction all around, he questioned whether art had any meaning in a world gone mad.

Monet's way of dealing with depression was through work. Painting became both the cause of his anguish and its cure. When overwhelmed by grief or anxiety, he would throw himself into new projects with manic intensity. The garden at Giverny served as therapy, providing a controllable world of beauty when the larger world seemed chaotic and cruel.

It's important to note that Monet's mental health struggles were not romanticized artistic temperament but real suffering that affected his life and relationships. Alice Hoschedé's letters describe dealing with his "black moods" when he would refuse to eat or speak for days. Yet he found ways to channel this darkness into art, creating works of luminous beauty from the depths of despair.