Blanche Hoschedé-Monet

Blanche Hoschedé-Monet, born in 1865, was the second daughter of Ernest and Alice Hoschedé. Her father was a successful businessman and art patron, who by 1878, however, was forced to declare bankruptcy. At that time, the Hoschedés and Monets decided to share a dwelling in Poissy, a Parisian suburb. The ménage consisted of Claude and Camille Monet and their two sons Jean Monet and Jacques Hoschedé, along with Ernest and Alice Hoschedé and their six children. Claude Monet and Alice became lovers, with Ernest frequently away on business. They lived together but did not marry until 1892. Monet’s wife Camille had died in 1879. Blanche started painting some time in her teens. Monet inquired in 1884, "Has Blanche been painting, and has she been making progress?" At that time, Blanche was nineteen. She was attracted to Monet’s style and subject matter, and since Monet did not wish for her to study in an academy, he encouraged her and gave her casual instruction. Blanche began submitting works to the Salon in 1888, but that year she was not accepted. Seven of her paintings appeared at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, where Durand-Ruel purchased one of her works. Blanche Hoschedé married Monet’s elder son Jean, a chemist. The couple moved to Rouen. She exhibited her works there. Jean died in 1914, so Blanche moved back into the Monet household; she abandoned her activities as an artist to take care of Monet as a kind of administrator. Blanche was also the sister in law of the artist Theodore Earl Butler, who managed to marry two of Blanche’s sisters, Suzanne and Marthe. Blanche was called “The Blue Angel” by the then French President George Clemenceau, in appreciation of the time she spent caring for Claude Monet during the final 20 years of his life. After Monet’s death, however, she began to exhibit again. She lived until 1947. Her works are rare and seldom dated.