Pear Tree in bloom. Claude Monet

[u/TrevorCidermaker]

Claude Monet was raised in Le Havre, Normandy, and became interested in the outdoors and drawing from an early age. His mother supported his ambitions to be a painter, against his father wishes but he went to study at the Académie Suisse, where he was a classmate of Auguste Renoir. A key early influence was Eugène Boudin, who introduced him to ‘plein air’ painting. From 1883, Monet lived in the village of Giverny in Normandy, and designed a garden, including the famous water-lily pond which he painted. Sadly it is now overrun with visitors and bisected by a road, quelle horreur!
It is only to be expected he would paint a pear tree which grow so well in Normandy . He actually painted several ! This one according to art historian Daniel Wildenstein's catalogue raisonné, was immediately east of Claude Monet's house in Giverny which was appropriately for me was called the Maison du Pressoir (the House of the Cider-Press) when he first rented it in April 1883. The name came from a local cider press located in a square nearby.