80 kilometers north of Paris there is a picturesque place Giverny (Giverny). Hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world, hundreds of thousands of people who are not indifferent to beauty, make a pilgrimage here. The impressionist artist lived and worked here for forty-three years. Claude Monet.
In 1883, the artist bought a house in this village, where he settled with his entire large family. Monet idolized nature. He was interested in gardening, bought books, and took great interest in the plot of land near his new home.
The artist exchanged seeds with other gardeners and carried on active correspondence with nurseries. For local peasants, “urban” ones were an unusual sight. The artist did not disdain any dirty work in the garden; the locals respected him very much.
Monet's family on a walk in the garden (artist on the right)
Edouard Manet “Monet’s Family in the Garden”
Monet at his home in Giverny
At first, the house and the surrounding land occupied no more than 1 hectare. But 10 years later, when Monet’s financial affairs were going well, he bought another plot, which was separated from the old one by the railway. Later it was replaced with a road surface for cars, so Monet's territory remained divided.
Thanks to artistic talent and hard work, what was previously just a vegetable garden near the house turned, thanks to Mona, into a real celebration of color, light and beauty. He planted everything with different types of flowers and plants.
The artist adored plants and flowers so much (and therefore the abundance of colors during their flowering!) that when he got his hands on a voluminous catalog of flower seeds, he didn’t waste much time studying it and ordered everything! Roses, lilies, wisteria, tulips, daisies, sunflowers, gladioli, asters - all this greeted the Monet family and their guests.
But the second part of the garden, behind the highway, evokes special attention and awe among visitors. This is the so-called water garden. You can get there through a tunnel. Everyone who comes here involuntarily freezes, holding their breath, seeing the masterpiece created by the great artist, recognizing the plots of his world-famous paintings.
Claude Monet “White Water Lilies”
Claude Monet “Water Lilies”
Claude Monet “Water lilies. Green reflection, left side”
He drained the swampy area, formed ponds and canals, skillfully channeling the water of the Ept River into them.
The banks of the pond were decorated with a variety of plants - raspberries, holly, Japanese sakura, anemones, peonies and many others. The main attraction of the garden is the Japanese bridge, entwined with wisteria, which lovers of the artist’s work simply cannot help but recognize. And most importantly, Monet ordered nymphaeum (water lily) seeds from Japan and decorated the water surface of the pond with them. Nymphs of different varieties were planted in the reservoir, and weeping willows, bamboo, irises, rhododendrons and roses were planted along the banks.
For Monet, the garden became his muse and his main occupation. Claude Monet wrote about water lilies:
“I planted them for pleasure, without even thinking that I would write them. And suddenly, unexpectedly, the revelation of my fabulous, wonderful pond came to me. I took the palette, and from that time on I almost never had another model.”
This artist’s painting technique is different in that he did not mix paints. And he placed them side by side or layered one on top of the other in separate strokes. Monet’s favorite manner of working in series allowed him not to ignore the slightest nuances of color and light - fortunately, a separate canvas could be devoted to each shade of the state of nature. Japanese bridge? – 18 options. A pond with white water lilies? – 13 paintings. Water lilies? – 48 canvases. And this list can go on for a long time...
Claude Monet “Water Lilies and the Japanese Bridge”
In 1916, when he was already 76 years old, he built a spacious studio to the right of the main house, which was called the “Water Lily Studio.” Here the artist realized his last grandiose plan - he created panels depicting water lilies, forming a circular panorama of about 70 m in circumference.
He donated these paintings to France, and they were placed in a specially built pavilion, which is located on the edge of the Tuileries Garden, where it faces the Place de la Concorde. If you look at the pavilion from above, it looks like a figure eight. In two oval halls, connected by a lintel, paintings depicting a pond in Giverny are hung: six or eight canvases. In essence, this is one picture that conveys changes in nature that are inaccessible to the ordinary eye as the day progresses.
Art critics claim that painting here has reached such perfection that it has erased the line between realism and abstract art. Claude Monet simply stopped the moment, because everything goes away, but nothing disappears, and life is always waiting for the next day. This was the lifetime triumph of Claude Monet's work.
Claude Monet “Water Lilies (Clouds)”
Claude Monet “Pond with Water Lilies and Irises”
Claude Monet drew inspiration from the water garden for 20 years. Monet wrote:
“...the revelation of my fabulous, wonderful pond came to me. I took the palette, and from that time on I almost never had another model.”
He first created paintings in nature, they gave reflections in the water surface of the pond, and then the artist transferred them to canvas. Getting up every day at five in the morning, he came here and painted in any weather and any time of year. Here he created more than a hundred paintings. This is very surprising for a genius, but Claude Monet was a very happy man. He achieved recognition during his lifetime, loved and was loved, did what he loved.
“I’m good for nothing except painting and gardening.”
Claude Monet
Monet devoted almost thirty years of his long life to his favorite subjects. The famous impressionist died in Giverny in 1926 at the age of 86. After the artist's death in 1926, his daughter Blanche looked after the house. But during the Second World War it fell into disrepair. Later in 1966, Monet's son transferred the estate to the Academy of Fine Arts, which immediately began restoration of first the house and then the garden.
Restored after a long period of neglect thanks to the generosity of American and French patrons, Claude Monet's garden was already widely known at the beginning of the century. Georges Clemenceau, who knew the artist from the time of meetings in the Parisian cafe “Gerbois” and owned one of the village houses near Giverny, was so amazed by this event that he even dedicated a small brochure to him, in which he wrote:
“Claude Monet’s garden can be considered one of his works; in it, the artist miraculously realized the idea of transforming nature according to the laws of light painting. His studio was not limited by walls, it opened out onto the open air, where color palettes were scattered everywhere, training the eye and satisfying the insatiable appetite of the retina, ready to perceive the slightest flutter of life.”
Now Giverny is visited by more than half a million people a year. The French are planning to submit an application to include the Claude Monet House Museum and Garden at Giverny on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Directions to Monet's garden:
France, Giverny (80 km north of Paris on the A13 highway).
The garden is open to the public every day except Mondays from 9.30 to 18.00 (ticket sales stop half an hour before closing).
Entrance fees:
Adults: 9 euros
Children from 7 years old and students: 5 euros
Children under 7 years old: free
Disabled: 4 euros
Parking: free
Keep in mind that if you want to see the artist’s paintings, then you need to go to the Orsay Museum, the Orangerie Museum and a hundred other museums in the world, since there are no paintings by the artist here.
Claude Monet's garden can be considered one of his works; in it, the artist miraculously realized the idea of transforming nature according to the laws of light painting. His studio was not limited by walls; it opened out onto the open air, where color palettes were scattered everywhere, training the eye and satisfying the insatiable appetite of the retina, ready to perceive the slightest flutter of life.
Georges Clemenceau, the artist's neighbor
The picturesque tiny village of Giverny, located near the confluence of the Epte and the Seine, is located just 80 km north of Paris. In 1883, after long and unsuccessful attempts to find permanent housing, the artist Claude Monet came here and settled with his family.
The place charmed him so much that, despite the extremely difficult financial situation, Monet decided to buy a hectare of land. This acquisition changed his whole life.
Monet became interested in gardening. It had interested him before. And in Saint-Michel (Bougival), and in Argenteuil, and in Vétheuil, despite meager funds, the artist managed to plant small gardens with overgrown flower beds. In Giverny his passion reached its climax.
The layout of the garden created by the artist, which changed its appearance in accordance with the seasons, was thought out to the smallest detail. Together with Alice Goshede (his second wife), her six children and his two sons, Monet created the garden of his dreams.
First of all, work was carried out on the approaches to the house: Monet cut down the alley of firs and cypresses, considering it too dull. But he cut it down not at the root, but retained the tall stumps to which shoots of climbing rose hips could cling. Soon the vines grew so large that they closed, and the alley turned into a vaulted tunnel strewn with flowers above the path leading to the house from the gate. Later, when the stumps collapsed, Monet replaced them with metal arches, gradually overgrown with flowers.
Having an aversion to the large decorative flower beds that the bourgeoisie usually arranged on their lawns, Monet planted irises, phlox, delphiniums, asters and gladioli, dahlias and chrysanthemums, as well as bulbous plants, which against the bright green background of the lawns looked like luxurious mosaic carpet.
The artist's experienced eye allowed him to skillfully “mix” flowers of various colors to achieve harmonious combinations, contrasts and transitions. Claude Monet did not like gardens planned out or contained in a colorful riot. He arranged the flowers according to their shades and allowed them to grow completely freely.
Over the years, the artist became more and more fascinated by botany, captivating him no less than the study of light reflections. In a book dedicated to Monet (“This unknown Claude Monet”), his stepson J.P. Goshede notes that the most important thing for the artist was not the curiosity, but the impression made by it. Impression from the detail and from the whole.
The ongoing process of creating a garden inspired Monet, and he conscientiously studied trade catalogs, constantly ordering more and more new seedlings, and also exchanged plants with his friends Clemenceau and Seybotte. To obtain reliable first-hand information, the artist hosted the most significant gardening specialists for dinner and became especially friendly with Georges Truffaut.
Monet constantly searched for rare varieties, buying them for very significant sums. " All my money goes into my garden, - Monet admitted, - but I am absolutely delighted with this plant splendor».
Cycle of flowers
"Le Clos Nonmand" was conceived "in French". The garden is located in front of the house, and the strict straight lines of the alleys contrast sharply with the colorful carpet of fragrant flowers all year round. Each season has its own color scheme. In spring, glades of light yellow daffodils precede the blooming of tulips, azaleas, rhododendrons, purple lilacs and delicate wisteria.
The artist’s favorite irises occupy a special place in the garden. They were planted in long, wide rows by the head gardener, his five assistants and, of course, Monet himself. Delphiniums of astounding beauty, poppies and clematis of various shades and sizes add a vibrant palette of summer colors. Summer passes under the sign of rapid flowering of roses.
From mid-autumn, the garden, with a young and lush frenzy, burns with its farewell colors, before fading until next spring. In the morning and evening, the dim rays of the autumn sun caress the geraniums and emphasize the royalty of the roses, fragile as Chinese porcelain. The fire of nasturtiums - shameless conquerors of all garden paths - spreads over their translucent leaves.
At the intersections of the main alleys, lavender-blue clematis proudly announce their arrival, while all the other little things compete with each other for space on the distant paths. Graceful dahlias complete with their arrogance the picture of the eternal struggle to show the world, even for a moment, the unique rainbow of pink, purple, orange and bright yellow.
Water garden
Water always fascinated the artist, and, having completed work on the flower garden near the house, in 1893 - ten years after his arrival in Giverny - Monet bought a large wetland plot of land with a stream on the other side of the road. With the support of local authorities, Monet digs a small pond there, thereby causing the displeasure of the neighbors. The pond will later be enlarged to its current size.
The water garden is full of asymmetry and curves. It is reminiscent of Japanese gardens, so beloved by Monet - it is not for nothing that the artist has long been fond of collecting engravings depicting them. In 1895, a “Japanese bridge” was erected, entwined with fragrant lilac-white wisteria lace. The pond was planted with water lilies of almost all species existing in nature, and along the edges a hedge of irises and arrowhead was built. The pond was densely framed by ferns, rhododendrons, azaleas, and lush bushes of blooming roses.
Magnificent weeping willows, columnar poplars and exotic-looking bamboo thickets complemented the picture imbued with serene peace. The pond and everything around it make up a single landscape, strikingly different not only from the outside rural world, but also from the multicolored flower garden in front of the house.
Here the sky and clouds, merging into one with greenery and flowers, are reflected in the mirror surface of the pond. And the border between reality and dreams is just an illusion... Always in search of fog and transparency, Monet devoted himself largely to “reflections in water” - an upside-down world, reality, passed through the water element.
The entire Giverny period, which lasted almost half a century, passed under the sign of Water Lilies.
« It's been a long time, wrote Monet, before I could understand my water lilies... I planted them for pleasure, without even thinking that I would paint them. And suddenly, unexpectedly, the revelation of my fabulous, wonderful pond came to me. I took the palette, and from that time on I almost never had another model.».
Bending over the surface of the reservoir, Monet endlessly painted water lilies, aquatic plants, and a weeping willow. He created about a hundred sketches and completed canvases on this topic, and it is they that perhaps evoke the greatest admiration, especially since many of the works were completed during an exacerbation of glaucoma, which threatened Monet’s vision, and are therefore close to abstract painting.
I'm good for nothing other than painting and gardening.
Claude Monet
Cezanne, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, Matisse and other artists often came to Giverny. Monet loved to host them, happily showing off his garden, greenhouses and a unique collection of Japanese prints. Knowing about the artist’s passion for gardening, many friends gave him rare, unique plants. For example, exotic tree peonies brought from Japan appeared in Giverny.
By that time, the success of the impressionist’s paintings had become obvious. As more money became available, Monet improved and expanded the house. Later he built a workshop in the garden. Every day the artist got up at five o'clock in the morning, came here and painted tirelessly. He painted at any time of the year, in any weather, at any hour of the day. He was also fascinated by walks in the surrounding area: Monet loved fields scarlet with poppies and shady paths along the Seine.
Restoring Monet's garden
The fate of the estate, so dear to the artist’s heart, was not easy.
After Monet's death in 1926, his son Michel inherited the house and garden in Giverny. He did not live there, and the artist’s stepdaughter, Blanche, looked after the estate. Then - the war and the post-war years of devastation, when there was no money to maintain a beautiful garden. The estate at Giverny fell into disrepair. In 1966, Michel Monet donated it to the Academy of Fine Arts. In the same year, restoration of the house began, which lasted for 10 long years and was finally successfully completed, largely through the efforts of the Claude Monet Foundation.
In 1977, Gerald van der Kemp was appointed curator of Giverny. Andre Deville and the famous designer Georges Trufaut helped him restore the garden in all its glory. The best gardeners in France did a colossal, very painstaking job of reconstructing the garden. Testimonies from Monet’s contemporaries, photographs of the garden and, of course, the artist’s beautiful paintings helped a lot. Many of Monet's descendants also provided assistance.
Numerous loans and donations eventually made it possible to revive the estate, returning it to its original appearance and former splendor. Now thousands of visitors from all over the world can enjoy the unique world created by Claude Monet.
Based on materials from the book by J.-P. Krespel “Daily Life of the Impressionists. 1863–1883” / trans. from fr. E. Puryaeva. – M.: Mol.guard, 1999.
Magazine "Garden&Kindergarten" 1-2006
If you drive 80 km north from Paris, you can get to the picturesque town of Giverny. This village is famous for the fact that Claude Monet once lived and worked here for forty-three years.
Having settled in the village in 1883, the artist became so interested in gardening that his canvases contained almost nothing except views of his favorite garden and a poppy field, which is located on the edge of the village.
At first, Monet's garden consisted only of the area adjacent to the house (about 1 hectare). Here, the first thing the artist did was carve out a gloomy alley of spruce and cypress trees. But tall stumps were left, along which climbing roses then climbed. But soon the vines grew so large that they closed and formed a vaulted flowering tunnel leading from the gate to the house. Of course, over time, the stumps collapsed, and now the roses are supported by metal supports. This place can be seen in the Master’s paintings: the perspective of an alley, where there are lush flowers on the left, right and above, and on the path below there are their thin openwork shadows.
The artist turned the area in front of the house, which was visible from the windows, into a floral palette, mixing and matching colors. In Monet's garden, a colorful, fragrant carpet of flowers is divided by straight paths, like paints in a box. Monet painted flowers and painted with flowers. As a truly talented person, he was both an outstanding artist and an outstanding landscape designer. He was very interested in gardening, bought special books and magazines, corresponded with nurseries, and exchanged seeds with other gardeners.
Fellow artists often visited Monet in Giverny. Matisse, Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro and others visited here. Knowing about the owner’s passion for flowers, friends brought him plants as gifts. Thus, Monet got, for example, tree-like peonies brought from Japan.
By this time, Claude Monet became famous. This artist’s painting technique is different in that he did not mix paints. And he placed them side by side or layered one on top of the other in separate strokes. Claude Monet's life flows calmly and pleasantly, his family and his beloved wife are nearby, paintings sell well, the artist is passionate about what he loves.
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In 1893, Monet bought a plot of marshy land next to his own, but located on the other side of the railway. A small stream flowed here. At this place, the artist, with the support of local authorities, created a pond, small at first and later enlarged. Nymphs of different varieties were planted in the reservoir, and weeping willows, bamboo, irises, rhododendrons and roses were planted along the banks.
There are several bridges across the pond, which has a very winding coastline. The most famous and largest of them is the Japanese bridge entwined with wisteria. Monet painted it especially often.
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Monet's water garden is strikingly different from the surrounding area; it is hidden behind the trees. You can only get here through a tunnel built under the road. Everyone who comes here involuntarily freezes, holding their breath, seeing the masterpiece created by the great artist, recognizing the plots of his world-famous paintings.
Claude Monet drew inspiration from the water garden for 20 years. Monet wrote: “... the revelation of my fabulous, wonderful pond came to me. I took the palette, and from that time on I almost never had another model.” 
He first created paintings in nature, they gave reflections in the water surface of the pond, and then the artist transferred them to canvas. Getting up every day at five in the morning, he came here and painted in any weather and any time of year. Here he created more than a hundred paintings. At this time, Monet began to lose his sight... It became increasingly difficult for him to distinguish and paint small details. The artist's paintings gradually change. Details and nuances are replaced by large strokes of paint that show the play of light and shadow. But even in paintings painted in this manner, we unmistakably guess familiar plots. The cost of paintings continues to rise...
Claude Monet died at his home in Giverny in 1926. His stepdaughter Blanche looked after the garden. Unfortunately, during the Second World War the garden fell into disrepair. In 1966, the son of the artist Michel Monet donated the estate to the Academy of Fine Arts, which immediately began restoration of first the house and then the garden. Now the estate in Giverny is visited by half a million people every year.
Claude Monet lived a very happy life. He managed to do what he loved, combine painting and gardening, and live in abundance. He was very happy in his personal life, he loved and was loved. Monet became famous during his lifetime, which is rare for artists. And now throughout the world he remains one of the most famous and beloved artists. And we are especially pleased that this outstanding man is not only a great painter, but also our colleague and Teacher, Master of Landscape Art.
Svetlana Chizhova, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Landscape Art Company,
especially for the site
Photo: Svetlana Chizhova, Mikhail Shcheglov
The picturesque village of Giverny became world famous thanks to the impressionist artist Claude Monet. The estate, where he spent his best years and where dozens of masterpieces were written, is today one of the most visited corners of France.
Background
Biographies of Claude Monet say that he first saw Giverny from a train window. In the spring of 1883, he made a special visit to this place, and the landscapes with flowering gardens made a deep impression on him.
At that time, Monet was already quite famous and rich. Soon he purchased a house in Giverny and moved there permanently with his family, and a few years later he began arranging his unique garden. Here Claude Monet was destined to live happily for 43 years, until his death in 1926.
House-museum
In the 1980s, the house in Giverny became the Claude Monet Museum (Fondation Claude Monet). Its external and internal decoration, furniture arrangement and all furnishings have been completely preserved in the form in which they were during the artist’s lifetime. 
Monet personally handled the arrangement of the house: the decoration of living rooms, bedrooms and other rooms was made in his favorite bright colors. One of the most memorable parts of the house is the dining room: it is painted in a rich yellow color and decorated with valuable Japanese prints that the artist collected throughout his life. His passion for Japanese culture is reflected in other rooms, where you can find not only prints, but also pieces of furniture in oriental style. 
The museum has preserved a large number of personal belongings and household items that belonged to Claude Monet and his family: dishes, kitchen utensils, carpets, watches, etc. The artist’s bedroom is decorated with paintings given to him by his impressionist friends: Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro and others.
For painting classes, Monet equipped 3 studios in the estate; only one of them is now open to visitors. In it, the artist kept his favorite works that were not intended for sale. Today, Monet’s paintings themselves are not here; the “working” atmosphere is created by their high-quality copies. You can see the original paintings of the founder of impressionism in the Orsay and Marmottan-Monet museums in Paris.
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Garden
Of great interest to tourists is not only Claude Monet’s house, but also his main “workshop” – the garden. For many years, this place was the main source of inspiration for the great impressionist and practically the only object of creativity. During the 43 years that the artist lived in Giverny, he painted several hundred paintings depicting a Japanese-style garden and pond with weeping willows, white flowers on the water and wooden bridges. Monet’s most famous series of paintings, “Water Lilies,” was created here. 
Today, the Claude Monet Foundation is caring for the estate in Giverny. Like the house museum, all corners of the garden are maintained in pristine condition. Tourists can explore the estate from April to October, and the best months to visit are May and June: it is at this time that the artist’s favorite flowers, water lilies, bloom.
C.Monet.Giverny
If you drive 80 km north from Paris, you can get to a very picturesque place - Giverny. This village is famous for the fact that Claude Monet once lived and worked here for forty-three years.
Claude Monet, photograph by Nadar, 1899. Oscar Claude Monet is a French painter, one of the founders of impressionism.
The territory of Giverny has been inhabited since Neolithic times, as evidenced by archaeological data. The settlement also existed during Roman times.
In early spring, when the flowers fly from the trees, covering everything with petals....The Arab delegation
Carla Lavatelli - beauty creator
Claude Monet is buried here
During the reign of the Merovingians, a parish was founded, headed by the Church of St. Radegund.
Very modest and no frills
In 863, King Charles II the Bald recognized Giverny as the domain of the monks from the Abbey of Saint-Denis-le-Fermand. In the 11th century, the fief of Giverny, together with the church, returned to the control of the Abbey of Saint-Ouen in Rouen. In the Middle Ages, a number of lords changed in Giverny, but they all remained vassals of the abbot of Saint-Ouen.
There were many monasteries in the town. The house next to one of them was called Le Moûtier, and the name of the other estate, La Dîme, came from the word "tithe", since until the Revolution it served as a place for collecting this tax in favor of the abbey.
During the Revolution, the lands of Giverny were owned by the Le Laurier family. M. le Laurier became in 1791 the first mayor of the village.
Claude Monet's house is surrounded by flowers, just like during the artist's lifetime
"House at Giverny" Frederick Carl Frieseke, 1912. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Having settled in the village in 1883, the artist Claude Monet became so interested in gardening that his canvases contained almost nothing except views of his favorite garden and a poppy field, which is located on the edge of the village.
Office, workshop overlooking the garden
At first, Monet's garden consisted only of the area adjacent to the house (about 1 hectare). Here, the first thing the artist did was carve out a gloomy alley of spruce and cypress trees.
But tall stumps were left, along which climbing roses then climbed. But soon the vines grew so large that they closed and formed a vaulted flowering tunnel leading from the gate to the house.
Claude Oscar Monet: The Garden in Flower (1900)
Of course, over time the stumps have collapsed and the roses are now supported by metal supports.
This place can be seen in the Master’s paintings: the perspective of an alley, where there are lush flowers on the left, right and above, and on the path below there are their thin openwork shadows.
The artist turned the area in front of the house, which was visible from the windows, into a floral palette, mixing and matching colors. In Monet's garden, a colorful, fragrant carpet of flowers is divided by straight paths, like paints in a box.
Monet painted flowers and painted with flowers. As a truly talented person, he was both an outstanding artist and an outstanding landscape designer.
He was very interested in gardening, bought special books and magazines, corresponded with nurseries, and exchanged seeds with other gardeners.
Woman in the garden
Fellow artists often visited Monet in Giverny. Matisse, Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro and others visited here. Knowing about the owner’s passion for flowers, friends brought him plants as gifts. Thus, Monet got, for example, tree-like peonies brought from Japan.
By this time, Claude Monet became famous. This artist’s painting technique is different in that he did not mix paints. And he placed them side by side or layered one on top of the other in separate strokes. Claude Monet's life flows calmly and pleasantly, his family and his beloved wife are nearby, paintings sell well, the artist is passionate about what he loves.
"It's evening, Giverny." Guy Rose, 1910. San Diego Museum of Art
In 1893, Monet bought a plot of marshy land next to his own, but located on the other side of the railway. A small stream flowed here.
At this place, the artist, with the support of local authorities, created a pond, small at first and later enlarged.
C. Monet. “Lily Pond”, 1899, National Gallery, London
Nymphs of different varieties were planted in the reservoir, and weeping willows, bamboo, irises, rhododendrons and roses were planted along the banks.
1900.K.Monet.Japanese bridge
C. Monet. “Water Lilies”, 1915
1922
There are several bridges across the pond, which has a very winding coastline. The most famous and largest of them is the Japanese bridge entwined with wisteria. Monet painted it especially often, as you can see. In the spring, when the wisteria blooms, you get the feeling of being in one of the famous Japanese gardens, and there is a bamboo plantation and Japanese maples planted nearby... Although the garden seemed to us deliberately chaotic and unsystematic, it’s like once again gave it a sad charm, a beauty untouched by time...
Monet's water garden is strikingly different from the surrounding area; it is hidden behind the trees. You can only get here through a tunnel built under the road.
Everyone who comes here involuntarily freezes, holding their breath, seeing the masterpiece created by the great artist, recognizing the plots of his world-famous paintings.
This is the bamboo I was talking about
Claude Monet drew inspiration from the water garden for 20 years. Monet wrote: “... the revelation of my fabulous, wonderful pond came to me.
Monet wrote: “I took the palette, and from that time on I almost never had another model.” He first created paintings in nature, they gave reflections in the water surface of the pond, and then the artist transferred them to canvas.
Getting up every day at five in the morning, he came here and painted in any weather and any time of year. Here he created more than a hundred paintings. At this time, Monet began to lose his sight...
It became increasingly difficult for him to distinguish and write small details. The artist's paintings gradually change. Details and nuances are replaced by large strokes of paint that show the play of light and shadow. But even in paintings painted in this manner, we unmistakably guess familiar plots. The cost of paintings continues to rise...
Claude Monet died at his home in Giverny in 1926. His stepdaughter Blanche looked after the garden. Unfortunately, during the Second World War the garden fell into disrepair.
In 1966, the son of the artist Michel Monet donated the estate to the Academy of Fine Arts, which immediately began restoration of first the house and then the garden. Now the estate in Giverny is visited by half a million people every year.
Claude Monet lived a very happy life. He managed to do what he loved, combine painting and gardening, and live in abundance. He was very happy in his personal life, he loved and was loved.
He knew how to give happiness himself...
Monet became famous during his lifetime, which is rare for artists. And now throughout the world he remains one of the most famous and beloved artists. And we are especially pleased that this outstanding man is not only a great painter, but also our colleague and Teacher, Master of Landscape Art.
Each month, from spring to autumn, the garden looks different, but the best months to visit it are May and June, when rhododendrons bloom around the pond with water lilies, and wisteria plays with colors over the famous Japanese bridge.
But at this time you will have to compete with crowds of people wanting to photograph the water lilies or just posing on the bridge.
The rooms inside the house are painted in different colors, exactly as they were during Monet's life, and the walls of many rooms are still decorated with Monet's wonderful collection of original Japanese prints, including wonderful works by Hokusai and Hiroshige.
Not far from the garden, up rue Claude Monet, is the Museum of American Art (visiting hours April-October, Tuesday-Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00; cost 5.50 euros).
The museum's exhibition is constantly updated based on paintings from the collection of the Terra Art Foundation, including paintings by John Singer Sargent and James Whistler, as well as works by American impressionists who lived in a small village of artists near Claude Monet, in particular, paintings by Mary Cassatt, on the work of which was significantly influenced by Japanese painting.
And life goes on. Claude Monet’s garden still blooms, his flowers still cry with dew, without him... their Creator
