Born in Paris on November 14, 1840, he spent his childhood in the city of Havre (Normandy) where his family moved when he was five years old. Monet developed his passion over time, starting with caricature and then, encouraged by his father, painting, which he studied in Paris in 1859 at the Swiss Academy. Monet’s military service in Algeria in 1861 cut short his studies but he nonetheless continued to experiment with different artistic forms. Forced to return to Paris in 1862 following an illness he contracted (pleurisy), Monet met the Swiss painter Charles Gleyre and also worked with Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir and Frédéric Basille who all become his close friends.