Giverny is a French town about 50 miles from Paris in Normandy. It is best known as the site where Claude Monet lived and painted some of his finest works. Giverny is now said to be the second largest tourist attraction after Versailles, attracting up to 1,000,000 visitors a year.
The Claude Monet Foundation Shop at Giverny
The water lily mural is part of a tryptich, each section of which is 6 ½ feet tall by 14 feet long and extends the length of the wall. This large, light-flooded room was Monet’s third studio, which he built after attaining great recognition as an artist. It has huge skylights, and the entire roof is made out of glass.
In the second tryptich mural in the gift shop, you can see willow tree branches in the foreground over the water garden. There are all things Monet for sale in the gift shop.
The mural in the gift shop is the third tryptich of water lilies with willow tree branches hanging over the water. Below the mural are photos of Monet at Giverny.
The painting on the easel shows Monet in his first studio, which later became a sitting room.
At the beginning of May, 1883, Monet rented a house and two acres from a local landowner. Like an artist who composes his picture's design, Monet carefully framed different views of his garden. His fortunes began to change for the better as his dealer had increasing success in selling his paintings, so Monet was able to invest more time and money in his gardens and family living style.
The sign points the way to Monet’s house.
The house has three entrances. The left one leads to Monet's apartment, the middle one is the main entrance, the right one is for domestic use and leads to the kitchen.
A closer view of Monet’s pink house with green shutters and trim. The man was not afraid of color.
A small garden in front of the house
The garden and paths in front of the house
A tall, frilly daisy bush by the door of the house
Monet's enthusiasm for his garden took second place only to his art. In the early years at Giverny, he did the gardening by himself. After seven years, by November, 1890, Monet was prosperous enough to buy the house, the surrounding buildings and the land for his gardens. As Monet's wealth grew, his garden evolved. He remained its architect, even after he hired seven gardeners. He built a greenhouse and a second studio, a spacious building, with a northern exposure.
Monet's garden was probably one key to his success, a starting point for his fame. We now know that he was a professional gardener in his time and well admired for his skills. He wrote daily instructions to his gardening staff, precise designs and layouts for plantings, invoices for his floral purchases and his collection of botany books. Monet often said, "Besides gardening and painting, I don’t know a thing.”
Today, maintaining the grounds is a year-round job for nine full-time gardeners and two apprentices, and even during the dormant season they are busy replacing shrubs and trees, and preparing plantings for spring and summer.
A view of the garden from Monet’s bedroom
It is the end of October, so the garden is not so colorful with flowers as it would be in the spring.
This path is one way to get to the water garden.
Another path through the garden
A rose tree bush
There are a number of different forms in the garden, such as pergolas, arches, and this tree form, which flowers are trained to grow on.
A plan of Monet’s house and gardens
In 1893, Monet managed to buy a piece of meadow near his property. He wanted to make an Oriental water garden. He diverted the Epte river, a tributary of the Seine River, and imported Chinese and Japanese bamboo, exotic water lilies, and rare species of plants for his water garden. He had a Japanese footbridge built, which he painted green to match the surrounding plants. The main focus of Monet's artistic production during the last thirty years of his life was his flower garden at Giverny and the Water Lilies series of oil paintings. The aim of his large Water Lilies paintings, Monet said, was to supply "the illusion of an endless whole, of water without horizon or bank." In the attempt to capture the constantly changing qualities of natural light and color, spatial cues all but dissolve; above and below, near and far, and water and sky all commingle.
Giovanna Bertazzoni, Christie’s auction house director and head of impressionist and modern art, said "Claude Monet's water-lily paintings are amongst the most recognized and celebrated works of the 20th Century and were hugely influential to many of the following generations of artists".
The record for a Monet painting, Water Lilies, sold for $71,846,600 at Christie’s on June 24, 2008. This was one of the highest prices ever paid for Monet's work.
A sign indicating the “jardin d’eau,” the water garden
To get to the water garden you go through an underground passage.
A stream runs beside the main pond
A stand of bamboo beside the stream
There is a bridge at each end of the pond
The Japanese bridge over the pond
Becky and Robert on the bridge
A willow tree hanging over the pond and many water lily plants, not in bloom at this time of year
Plants on one bank of the pond
Plants on the bank and a beautiful reflection of a golden-leafed tree in the water
My cousin Peter and his wife Pat across the pond
A view of the pond from the opposite end
A closer view from across the pond
The pond through the branches of a willow tree
The Museum of the Impressionists is 200 yards away from the Monet estate. The exhibition we saw was The Clarks’ collection, from Manet to Renoir. Sterling Clark was an heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. He began collecting art in 1910 when he settled in Paris. He and his wife, Francine Clary, created a collection of French 19th century works, including Monet, Pissaro, Manet and Degas, as well as twenty paintings by Renoir. Giverny was the sole stop of the exhibition in France, and it lasted until October 31.
The museum is a short walk from Monet’s house.
Museum sign
From the road, the museum is hidden behind hedges. You can see only the very top of the building.
The exhibit was a very pleasant surprise. I knew there was a special impressionist exhibit during the time we would be in Paris, but I really didn’t know it would be so grand. After visiting the museum, we had lunch at an outdoor cafe and then headed back to Paris, along with many other Parisians headed home at the end of the weekend.
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