Claude Monet’s first profession in art was caricaturist.
As a teenager in Le Havre, Monet became known locally for humorous caricatures, which he displayed and sold. These drawings brought him early attention and introduced him to Eugène Boudin, a landscape painter who encouraged him to work outdoors.
Monet initially resisted Boudin’s advice, but eventually joined him in painting scenes from nature. This experience helped redirect Monet away from caricature and toward landscape, the field in which he would later become one of the most influential artists of the nineteenth century.
His early caricatures are important because they show that Monet was already earning money from art before entering the established Parisian art world. They are sometimes overlooked because his later reputation rests overwhelmingly on paintings such as his water-lily, cathedral, haystack, and London series.