Doing Impressions: Monet's Early Caricatures (ca. late 1850s)

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At 15, Claude Monet was a successful caricaturist in Le Havre, selling drawings of local figures for 20 francs each and attracting crowds.
Monet produced up to eight caricatures daily; some are now in the Art Institute of Chicago, donated by former mayor Carter Harrison IV.
His caricatures served as a 'clandestine apprenticeship,' helping him enter the art world from a bourgeois background.
Early works include anonymous subjects, imitations like one of August Vacquerie copied from Nadar, and satirical pieces such as the 'Butterfly Man' of Jules Didier.
A caricature of Henri Cassinelli, labeled 'Rufus Croutinelli,' mocked a failed subsidy applicant; Monet also did not receive the subsidy.
Profits from about 2,000 francs in caricature sales allowed Monet to move to Paris against his father's wishes and start formal art training, aided by his aunt's pension.
Monet first saw mentor Eugène Boudin's work at the framing shop, leading to en plein air painting and possibly influencing Impressionism's essence-capturing style.
Later, Monet reflected that his caricature success contrasted with difficulties selling Impressionist works.

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