Caricature of a Man with a Large Nose

Claude Monet's "Caricature of a Man with a Large Nose" (1855/56) is a graphite drawing on tan wove paper that exemplifies the young artist's approach to caricature: the identification and exaggeration of a single distinctive feature. In this case, the large nose becomes the focal point of the drawing, the rest of the face arranged around it. The graphite technique is confident and economical, the lines defining the features with a surety that is remarkable for an artist of 15 or 16. The tan wove paper provides a warm ground. This drawing, like Monet's other caricatures, was likely displayed in the window of Gravier's art supply shop in Le Havre, where they attracted the attention of passersby and, crucially, of the painter Eugène Boudin. Boudin was impressed by the young caricaturist's talent but urged him to look beyond caricature to the serious study of nature. "Study, learn to see and to paint," Boudin told him, "draw, paint the landscape, the sea, the sky." Monet followed this advice, and the history of art was transformed.

The meeting between the young caricaturist Monet and the landscape painter Boudin, occasioned by these shop-window caricatures, was one of the pivotal moments in the history of modern art.

This caricature of a man with a large nose is more than a humorous sketch—it is the work of a young artist on the threshold of genius, whose talent was about to be directed toward the landscape that would become his life's work.