Camille Monet on Her Deathbed, 1879 by Claude Monet

Camille on Her Deathbed, 1879 is one of Monet’s most powerful paintings of his wife, if not the most poignant; the canvas captures a real tenderness and unwavering love between Camille and Claude. Towards the end of her life, Camille suffered greatly from dyspepsia and other medical complications that followed the birth of her children. She died at the age of 32, leaving Monet in a state of immense grief which he channeled into a complex piece of art.

Camille was the first wife of French painter Claude Monet. She was the subject of a number of paintings by Monet, as well as Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Édouard Manet. She was mother to two sons with Monet. Camille and Monet were married on 28 June 1870. Camille-Léonie Doncieux was around eighteen when she met and fell in love with Claude Monet, leaving her fine home to live with the talented 25-year-old painter who could not sell his work. When she bore his child both her family and his disowned them.

In 1877 Camille gave birth to her second son, Michel. Soon Camille's health deteriorated - to some sources as a result of a malpracticed abortion, to others she had cancer. On August 31, a priest was called to the house to administer the last rites and to sanction her marriage to Monet (which had been conducted in a civil ceremony in 1870). Monet was devastated. On September 5, five days later, Camille died at the age of 32.