Jean Monet (1867–1913) on His Hobby Horse  1872

Monet painted this picture of his elder son, Jean, in the summer of 1872, not long after the artist and his family returned to France from self-imposed exile during the Franco-Prussian War. Thanks to the efforts of the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, the painter’s finances had begun to improve, enabling the once-impoverished Monets to rent a house in Argenteuil, an agreeable subu...