... former student of Jacques-Louis David. At this age, Monet enjoyed drawing landscapes and simple aspects of nature, such as trees, which mostly mimicked the work of previous artists.3 What is most interesting about Monet's early years is his denial and contradictory recounting of them. We know from surviving notebooks that Monet's early sketches were mechanical and imitating of older artists, but he would later claim that at this age he drew "spontaneously" and "(covered) his schoolbooks with fantastic designs."4 Similarly, he would later allege to have held disdain for his next mentor, Eugene Boudin: "His painting inspired in me great aversion...without knowing the man, I hated him." Despite these feelings, Boudin would be the man who set Monet forth on his style of painting. Boudin also lived in Le Havre, and his artwork was often on display in shops alongside Monet's. How they met exactly in 1856 is unknown, but in a ...

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