Blanche Hoschedé-Monet

Claude Monet’s only pupil: she painted at his side from 1882, married his son, then kept his house for twelve years.

Dates1865 — 1947
NationalityFrench
DisciplinePainter
Place of birthParis, France

Biography

Blanche Hoschedé was born in Paris on 10 November 1865, the second daughter of Ernest Hoschedé, a textile merchant and collector, and of Alice. She grew up among the painters her father received. Ernest’s bankruptcy brought the family to the Monets at Vétheuil; after Camille’s death in 1879 the two households became one, and settled at Giverny in 1883. She married Jean Monet in 1897 and followed him to Rouen, where she exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants. She died in Nice on 8 December 1947. She died at Nice in 1947.

Giverny

From 1882 she went out to paint with Claude Monet and followed him for fourteen years: she was his only pupil. Jean died in 1914; she then returned to Giverny to care for her ageing father-in-law and laid down her brushes — Clemenceau called her the blue angel. She did not take up painting again until after Monet’s death in 1926. The Vernon museum, which holds the largest collection of her canvases, has borne her name since 2024.

Principal works

**Le Jardin de Claude Monet à Giverny** oil on canvas, 1927, signed at lower left. The garden in June, seen from under a tree: mauve and white irises in the foreground, red and pink peonies, the path in the grass and the house beyond the beds. Given by the artist to the State that same year. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, inv. LUX 87, on deposit at the musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée d’Orsay) / Martine Beck-Coppola.

**Pivoines** oil on canvas, 1931, signed at lower left. A clump of white and pink peonies rising against a blue-green ground, painted close up, at flower height. Purchased by the State on 17 October 1931. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, inv. AM 1868, on deposit at the musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée d’Orsay) / Martine Beck-Coppola.

**Landscape, Snow Effect; le Val near Giverny** oil on canvas, 1888, signed at lower left and inscribed at lower right. A sunken lane under snow, a row of bare apple trees, the white hillside and the blue valley beyond. Her first canvas submitted to the Salon, painted while Monet was away. Minneapolis Institute of Art, no. 148177, public domain.

Les Pins maritimes oil on canvas, 1928, 66 × 83 cm. Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, inv. MDIG D 2021.1.2, on deposit from the lycée Claude-Monet since 2021.

Key points