The Garden at Giverny, Blanche Hoschedé Monet
Blanche Hoschedé Monet was a French painter who was both the stepdaughter and the daughter-in-law of Claude Monet.
Blanche Hoschedé was born in Paris, the second daughter of Ernest Hoschedé and Alice Hoschedé. Ernest was a businessman, a department store magnate in Paris. He collected impressionist paintings and was an important patron to Claude Monet early in his career. In 1876, he commissioned Claude Monet to paint decorative panels in the round drawing room, in his residence, the château de Rottembourg, in Montgeron. In 1877, Ernest Hoschedé went bankrupt and his art collection was auctioned off.
The only child in the Hoschedé-Monet household to become interested in art, Blanche began painting at the age of eleven and developed a fond relationship with Claude Monet. She visited his studio as well as Édouard Manet's. By the time she was 17 years old, she was Monet's assistant and only student, often painting en plein air alongside him, painting the same subject with the same colors.
