Personal Struggles and Artistic Persistence

The late 1860s were marked by severe financial hardship for Monet. His family had cut off support due to his relationship with Camille Doncieux, whom he had met in 1865. Camille, who worked as a model, came from a modest background that Monet's bourgeois family found unacceptable. Their son Jean was born in 1867, adding to their financial pressures.

Letters from this period reveal the depth of Monet's poverty. He wrote to Bazille, his wealthier friend, begging for loans to buy paint and canvas, describing how he had to flee from creditors and how Camille had fallen ill from privation. At one point, he attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Seine, though he later dismissed this as a momentary weakness.

Despite these hardships, or perhaps because of them, Monet's work from this period shows remarkable development. Paintings like "The Magpie" (1868-69), showing a snow-covered landscape with a single bird on a fence, demonstrate his growing mastery of light effects. The painting captures the blue shadows on snow and the winter sun's weak warmth with unprecedented subtlety.