Jean Monet (1867-1913) On His Hobby Horse

When Monet painted this picture of his elder son, Jean, in the summer of 1872, the artist and his family had recently returned to France from their self-imposed exile during the Franco-Prussian War. Through the efforts of the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, the artist's finances had begun to improve, enabling the once-impoverished Monets to rent a house in Argenteuil, an agreeable suburb northwest of Paris. For this portrait, Monet posed the five-year-old in the garden of their new home. Monet never exhibited the painting but kept it throughout his life.