Claude Monet, one of the creators of impressionism, began his extraordinary life in Paris on November 14, 1820. In his youth, he began painting caricature portraits and displayed them at local art supply stores. Although his parents were not against his wishes to become a painter, he criticized academic art and therefore refused to enter a respectable school of art. His art career was set aside, however, in 1860 when he began his military service in Algeria. His military career only lasted a single year, and after he served, he began to attend the art schools Académie Suisse and the Atelier Gleyre where he met several other young painters that would one day become famous as well.

Monet's art career started to blossom as he, along with his friend, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, painted La Grenouillere, a small floating restaurant. This began the new style of impressionism, although it was not called...