Claude Monet served in the military in Algeria in 1861–1862. He was conscripted into the French Army and spent about a year in Algeria during his early twenties.
Monet later said that the North African light and colors influenced his artistic vision. Although he did not yet have the mature Impressionist style for which he became famous, the experience helped deepen his interest in observing changing light and atmosphere.
Monet’s service ended after he contracted typhoid fever. His aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre, reportedly paid for his release from the army on the condition that he pursue an artistic career. He then returned to France and continued his training as a painter.
This episode is sometimes confused with Monet’s later travels in the Netherlands, London, Norway, and Venice. Algeria was his early military posting, not one of the European locations associated with his mature landscape series.