Madame Monet and Child, 1875 by Claude Monet

During Monet's lifetime there was a huge circle of artists and writers who shared and nurtured a bohemian culture. New ground was being broken in art and literature and there was an atmosphere of new ideas and theories, many of which were aired at the Cafe Guerbois in Paris, It was here that Monet was exposed to a wide range of work by many of artists. Early influences on him were the works of Boudin and Jongkind, the Barbizon school of landscape artists, especially Doubigny, Corot and Millet, the Realist Gustave Courbet and the colors of Eugene Delacroix. Through Gleyre's studio he became involved with Renoir, Bazille, Sisley, Camille Pissarro and later met Paul Cezanne. These artists frequently painted together, and influenced the development of each other's work, with many similarities seen between the early work of Renoir and Monet.

During the 1870s Monet was working from Argenteuil and produced a series of paintings of Camille in garden settings. These beautiful pictures full of golden light and blooming flowers were charming representations of the bourgeoisie at leisure, painted to sell to this market.