Claude Monet water garden at Giverny. “The garden is his workshop, his palette”: The Giverny estate, where Claude Monet drew inspiration from

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 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.

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.

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.

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

We admired the views he praised. They looked at the Rouen Cathedral with reverence. We couldn’t help but stop by Giverny, where the master lived for 43 years—exactly half his life. The second half - he was born in 1840, died in 1926, settling in Giverny in 1883.
All nature rejoiced with us that day - after the gray, cloudy days in Normandy, the sun generously flooded the entire area, as if remembering what jokes it played on the artist, leaving him no more than 40 minutes to work on one of a series of paintings. The laws of the Earth's revolution around the luminary changed the lighting after such a short period of time that Monet had to move from one canvas to another, changing colors each time.

To get to the maestro's house, you need to go through the village of Giverny. First of all, a fan of Monet's talent finds himself in a vast garden. It was destroyed many years after the master’s death, when a museum was opened in Giverny. Once upon a time there was simply a meadow here; a small area of ​​it remains. With those same haystacks that have become famous. This is the first thing we saw in Giverny.

Claude Monet “Haystack at Giverny”

The garden at Giverny is divided into small areas, they are separated from one another by bosquets or hedges.

The plants in each of the departments are thematically selected - they are in harmony with each other either in aroma or color. There are compartments with roses, others contain only white flowers.

Or only blue, or only red. All plants are arranged according to the seasons. They are changed depending on the timing of flowering, so from early spring to late autumn the garden blooms and smells fragrant.

Giverny is literally surrounded by greenery. While you are walking towards Monet’s house-museum, you inevitably tune in to the wave of unity with nature, which the great impressionist expressed with all the power of his talent.

The impressive line at the ticket office disappeared in a matter of minutes - organized groups had their own entrance, but there weren’t very many “wild” people like us.

Approaching the house, the first thing you see is a polychrome sea of ​​flowers on a green background. You want to swim and bathe in it, inhale, absorb, take in, draw in the grace of the Earth. You freeze with admiration that all the diversity of flora is placed and planted in a strictly defined way. It is subject to the artistic logic of Claude Monet himself - yes, this is exactly how his garden should look and no other way, this is correct and it is very beautiful!

At first, you perceive the master’s house as an integral part of the garden, which lives by natural cycles.

I really want to get my fill, “swim until I’m blue in the face” in Monet’s garden, but I have to go to the house-museum - it’s Sunday morning, Paris is less than 100 km away and soon there may be a real “demonstration” here. We have a few minutes to look at the house where the artist spent so many years with his second wife Alice and their children - his and Camilla’s sons, and Alice Hoschede’s children from his first marriage; they did not have children together, but their children had a consanguineous union - The artist's eldest son, Jean Monet, married Alice's daughter Blanche Hoschede.

House-Museum of Claude Monet

Interestingly, this house was the second pink building with green shutters in which Monet lived, the first being in Argenteuil. It became another master's dwelling, where the garden was separated from the house by a railway, the same was true in Vetheuil. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau once remarked: “There’s even a railway in his garden!”

At first, the family simply rented this only suitable house in Giverny. When Claude (I really want to put his middle name 🙂) Monet bought it, the house looked different. The estate had a rather interesting name – “house of apple press”. An apple pressing machine stood nearby. In accordance with his taste, the master expanded the house in both directions, adapting it to the needs of a large family and his professional needs. A small barn nearby was connected to the house and it became the artist’s first studio. And although Monet mainly worked en plein air, he completed the paintings in the studio and stored them. Above this studio was his room. The master occupied the entire left half of the house - here he could work, relax, and receive guests.

A narrow terrace stretches along the entire façade. Now you can enter the house through the main entrance, just like in Monet’s time. All household members, friends and guests used it.

There are two more side doors, they also open onto the garden. If he wanted to go straight to his workshop, he entered the house through the door on the left. The right door was intended for servants, it immediately leads to the kitchen.

The facade of Claude Monet's house is very simple, but the appearance is deceiving! How often does it happen that behind an elegant façade hides a very mediocre environment with an abandoned library, pitiful bedspreads and paintings that do not touch the soul. This has nothing to do with Monet's house! Here, on the contrary, behind the modest appearance of the house one discovers an amazing atmosphere; one can hardly imagine anything more charming. We climb the steps and I feel my breath catching from the opportunity to touch another world - the world of color and the inviting atmosphere of simple comfort. The dining room, the blue living room take you to England, then you suddenly feel purely French features, and real Japan reigns around you! Only an artist’s home can be like this! Alice brought classical notes to the decor, but the colors are the merit of Claude Monet, his word was always the last and decisive. At times, when the master was away in search of new species, Alice wrote to him that she had changed something in her bedroom and was very pleased with the result. The husband’s answer was always rather cold: “Wait when I get back, we need to see what happened.”

The home inspection begins with blue living room. In the old days it was called the Mauve drawing room or the Blue salon. The blue color of the room was chosen by the master himself. The impressionist added his own composition to the classic blue colors, because of this it carries a special charm. The master chose the color not only in Alice’s living room, but in all rooms of the house.

The interior of the room is designed in the French style of the 18th century. The living room is small in size and was intended for the mistress of the house, Alice. She usually spent time here embroidering and loved to sit with the children. But sometimes it happened that numerous guests crowded precisely in the blue salon. This happened when Monet was working in his studio or meditating in his bedroom, or catching the last rays of the setting sun while working outdoors. Here the invitees waited for the host, chatted, and drank tea. On chilly autumn days, water for tea was heated in a large samovar.

Alice often rested here, closing her eyes. When Claude Monet left for sketches, in letters to his wife he often mentioned that he couldn’t wait to finally unpack his new canvases and examine them with his wife. The bright, rich blue of the walls and furniture combines surprisingly with Japanese prints. Most of the engravings from the master’s significant collection hung here.

Japanese prints in Monet's house.

Traditional Japanese prints are prints made from wooden tablets. Their clichés were first carved on sections of cherry or pear wood. They have become extremely popular in Japan due to their relatively low price and mass production. In the 19th century, Europe also became interested in Japanese engravings.

Hiroshige Asakusa Rice Fiels during the Festival of the Cock

Monet collected them passionately over 50 years and accumulated 231 engravings. It is generally accepted that the master bought the first engraving in the early 1870s in Holland. But it is also known that Monet had encountered such drawings before. He himself admitted that once, back in Le Havre, when he was skipping school, he saw Japanese prints brought from the East by merchant ships heading to Germany, Holland, England and America. It was then that the future founder of impressionism encountered the first low-quality pictures; they were sold in a coastal store in Le Havre, Monet’s hometown. Now no one will say which of the engravings appeared first in his collection.

Hokusai “Fine Weather with a South Wind” – one of 36 views of Mount Fuji from the collection of Claude Monet

The maestro not only carefully collected his collection, he gladly gave away pictures as gifts. Monet constantly bought hundreds of them and also easily parted with many. “Do you like Japanese prints? Choose one for yourself!” was heard every now and then in Monet’s house. The master's children and stepchildren generously donated Japanese prints.

The themes of the drawings he collected corresponded to the artist’s varied interests - nature, theater, music, rural life, botany, entomology, everyday scenes. He loved to see them around him and he himself admitted that these drawings inspired him very much.

Engravings decorate the walls of all rooms of Monet’s house, and there are them in the passage room, which served as a storage room.

From the blue living room we move into pantry. Sometimes it is difficult to understand the logic of organizing space. Why, for example, do people enter the pantry from the living room and not from the kitchen? It’s just that there is no corridor in the house connecting all the rooms; any of them could be a passageway. For convenience, the pantry became the connection between other rooms.

Even despite this role, the pantry has become an important part of the interior. Several engravings on the wall speak about this. They depict merchant ships with flags waving in the wind, carrying goods from Yokohama to the eastern shores and back. In another engraving we see women in kimonos and crinolines at the counters of foreign merchants in Yokohama. Engravings in blue tones fit well here with the wardrobe - the main piece of furniture.

The cabinet was locked with a key, which was always kept by the owner of the house. And only she alone discovered the riches of exotic countries - Bourbon vanilla, nutmeg and cloves from Cayenne, cinnamon from Ceylon and pepper delivered from the Dutch East Indies. Spices were very rare and very expensive at that time. The aromas of Javanese coffee and Ceylon tea wafted from the bamboo-style cabinet. Chinese tea was not yet drunk at the end of the 19th century; it appeared in Europe only at the beginning of the 20th century. All this wealth lay in iron cans, boxes, and caskets from the best Parisian craftsmen. English tea, olive oil from Aix, and foie gras from . The closet has drawers and each of them also has built-in locks.

The pantry is a cold room; it was not heated on purpose so that food could be stored, mainly eggs and tea. In Monet's time they ate much more eggs than now. There are two boxes attached to the wall to store them, they can hold 116 pieces. The Monet family did not buy eggs; they had their own chicken coop in the yard. Although neither Alice, nor, especially, Claude Monet, ever perceived life in Giverny as provincial. They were separated from the villagers by a vast garden and a high fence. But gradually they met several local families. However, a lot of time passed until their chickens began to lay eggs, the cow began to give enough milk, and berries appeared on the currant bushes.

Let's go to first workshop, and later – Monet’s living room. Through the south window, light flows like a river into the master’s living room; a bay window facing east also helps provide good lighting. But such lighting is not at all suitable; in an artist’s studio, the windows should face north! Because of the ground floor, it was impossible to arrange north-facing windows in this room, and from the very beginning Monet knew that his studio would not remain here for long, he would find a better room.

And so it happened, later his first workshop became a living room. Although it remained a room for work, which alternated with family and friendly conversations, here Monet and Alice received numerous visitors, friends, guests, art dealers, critics, and collectors. There were also two desks here – his and Alice’s. Both of them maintained an active correspondence, both wrote a lot and every day. Under the large window is a Cuban mahogany secretary. Chairs, a coffee table, a music table, a Renaissance-style cabinet filled to capacity with books, a sofa, two Chinese vases - everything has been preserved here since Monet’s time. Large vases were usually filled with flowers of one type and placed throughout the living room. Persian rugs added a touch of elegance to the room.

Reproductions of Monet's paintings on the walls take visitors back to the artist's time, because the master loved to keep paintings that reminded him of every step of his career. True, the originals, which previously adorned the walls of the living room, are now exhibited in Paris, at the Monet Marmottan Museum. Previously, works hung here that Monet could not part with. Sometimes he bought back already sold paintings, then sold them again and exchanged or bought them again.

He was barely making ends meet when he offered to buy the canvas “Veteuil in the Fog,” painted in 1879, to Jean-Baptiste Faure for 50 francs. It seemed to Tom that the picture was too white, the colors were too scarce, and in general, it was impossible to determine what was actually depicted on the canvas. One day, many years later, Faure came to Giverny and saw this painting on the wall in this very first workshop of the master and showed genuine interest in it. Monet replied to the guest that this painting was no longer for sale at any price and reminded Faure of the circumstances under which he had already seen “Veteuil in the Fog.” Confused, Faure found several serious reasons to leave Giverny as quickly as possible.

Here, as elsewhere in the house, the original furnishings have been preserved and this creates a feeling of the presence of a master. He really is here invisibly. Although instead of the living master, his bust by Paul Paulin was installed in the first studio. The bust reminds us that Monet became a legend during his lifetime. True, he had to wait for recognition; it came to the artist only at the age of 50.

Claude Monet in his first studio-living room

As the master expected, a second, more convenient workshop was soon built; it was located separately in the western part of the garden. To do this, it was necessary to demolish the buildings standing there, and as soon as Monet bought the pink house, he without hesitation demolished everything unnecessary and finally became the owner of a real workshop, where everything was arranged for work, there was enough space and a huge window faced north! The second workshop became the master's sanctuary, where no one disturbed him while he worked.

I can’t say whether this workshop has survived; the book doesn’t say anything about it and it’s not shown to tourists.

Bedroom of K. Monet located directly above his first workshop-living room. To get to the artist’s bedroom, you need to return to the pantry again. A very steep staircase leads up from there; this is the only way to the master’s rest room. In days of despair, doubt, bad mood and illness, the master avoided any company, even those closest to him. Sometimes he did not leave his bedroom for days, walking back and forth along it, did not go down to dinner, and food was brought here for him. On such days the house was enveloped in silence. Even in the dining room no voices were heard if the owner was not there.

In the bedroom we will find a rather simple bed where the artist slept and where he rested in God on December 5, 1926. The walls in his room are white; in Monet’s time there was still a Louis XIV secretary and two chests of drawers. The furniture was already a hundred years old during the master’s lifetime; it was made at the end of the 18th century.

Each of the three bedroom windows offers magnificent views of the garden. Two of them are oriented to the south and one to the west.

But the main treasure of Monet's bedroom were the paintings. The collection also occupied the walls in the bathroom, and continued in Alice's bedroom. There were three canvases, 12 works, nine canvases, five by Berthe Morisot, several, three paintings by Camille Pissarro, there was Alfred Sisley, a seascape by Albert Marquet. The collections were complemented by pastels by Morisot, Edouard Manet, Paul Signac and even a couple of sculptures by Auguste Rodin.

Alice's bedroom located next to Monet's room. As was customary in the homes of the nobility at that time, husband and wife slept in separate bedrooms. They are connected through the door in the bathroom.

The very simple room of the artist’s second wife is decorated with Japanese prints with images of women. This is one of the few rooms in the house with windows facing the street, that is, to the north. In her room you can imagine how narrow the house really is. From her bedroom window, Madame Monet could watch the children playing at the other end of the estate.

At the very top of the main staircase there is a small storage room for linen. And along it we find ourselves in dining room. This is perhaps the most exciting room in Monet's house. How many celebrities has she seen in her lifetime!

In Monet's time, an invitation to dinner meant that the guests strictly and unconditionally agreed with all the unchanging traditions of the house. This means that if the guest is not a gourmet, then at least he is a connoisseur of haute cuisine. He must like everything Japanese. Guests were required to know the strict routine of the house, where everything lived in accordance with the working rhythm of the owner, and to submit with dignity to the rules and discipline, which was close to the Benedictine. The daily routine was strict and unshakable. Even walking through the house and garden followed a carefully worked out route.

Monet significantly expanded the dining room at the expense of the former kitchen; it became large and bright, its French windows overlook the veranda. In that Victorian era, dark and gloomy interior colors were in vogue. The master paid little attention to fashion and decided to give the dining room two shades of yellow. Vibrating shades of ocher emphasized the blue of the earthenware from Rouen and Delft on the sideboard. The floor is covered with checkerboard tiles - the pattern is created by white and dark red panels, this combination was very popular at that time. The ceiling, walls and furniture are painted in two shades of yellow. 12 people could freely sit at a large table, but sometimes it was set for 16 people.

In the dining room, which itself looked like an art gallery, the whole family, their friends and honored guests gathered, including guests from Japan such as Mr. Kuroki Hayashi. There was always a yellow linen tablecloth laid out on the table, usually a Japanese earthenware service called “cherry wood” or a white porcelain service with wide yellow borders and blue trim. Curtains made of organza, also painted yellow, were pulled apart for better lighting. Two mirrors stood opposite each other. One was decorated with a blue faience flower stand from Rouen, on the other there was a gray and blue Japanese flower stand, in the form of an open fan, with a large vase at the bottom.

The walls of the dining room are filled with Japanese prints, which Monet selected according to his sense of color. His collection included works by the best Japanese masters - Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro.

For convenience, next to the dining room there is kitchen- the last room that can be viewed in the house. Monet decided to paint it in blue. This color harmonized well with the yellow tone of the dining room. If the door to the next room was opened, then the guests saw a blue color that was well suited to yellow.

View of the kitchen from the yellow dining room

This was another violation of the generally accepted rules of the turn of the century, when only the cook and his assistants reigned in the kitchen and servants came to dine. It is interesting that the owner never entered the kitchen, visiting it only once, when he was thinking through the decoration of this room. He decided that the pale royal blue was well set off by the rich blue that the master used everywhere in the interior of the rooms. This color scheme added even more light to the room with two windows overlooking the veranda and a French window, which, like most windows in the house, looked out onto the garden.

The kitchen walls are decorated with blue Rouen tiles. They paid a lot of money for it because cobalt was added to it to give it color and the production process was very expensive. Not only the walls, but also the floor and ceiling of the kitchen, as well as the table, chairs, ice box, salt shakers, and cabinets are painted the same color. At that time, the color blue was believed to promote hygiene and also repel insects, especially flies. The blue furnishings of the walls and cabinets of the kitchen emphasize the shine of copper utensils, a large collection of which is located on the walls.

It is not surprising that in a family of 10 people, food played an important role, and the kitchen was considered a sanctuary. After all, every day it was necessary to feed breakfast, lunch and dinner not only to household members, but also to guests and servants. Here everything was subordinated to the purpose of the room. Every day, hot or cold, a huge stove was heated in the kitchen with coal or wood. A huge boiler with a copper lid was built into it and there was always hot water in the house.

Every day a peasant knocked on the small window facing the street and announced that he had delivered the order he had received the day before for vegetables and fruits. Steps next to the window led into a vast cellar where perishable food was stored and ice was brought in from nearby Vernon.

The kitchen barely left any free time for the cooks. It was constantly necessary to cut, crumble, stir, chop. And then - wash, clean, polish numerous copper gravy boats, pots, kettles until the next time, which was never delayed.

As elsewhere, several cooks, sometimes entire dynasties, served in Monet’s house. For example, Caroline and Melanie gave their names to the recipes he invented. And the most famous cook of Giverny was Margaret. She started working in the house when she was still a girl. Then she introduced Monet to her fiancé, Paul. And so that Margaret would not leave home, the Monets hired Paul. Margaret remained in her post after the death of the maestro, until 1939. In rare moments of rest, Margaret loved to sit in a low armchair without arms and leaf through a book of recipes, from which she drew inspiration, like her master from Japanese prints. Sometimes she just looked into the garden, where two cherry blossoms bloomed white and soft pink. When she left Giverny and returned to her native Berry, she recalled: “the work in Giverny was very hard, but when I worked, there were always two Japanese trees in front of me.”

The inspection of the house ends here. We move on to the Normandy Garden or Clos Normand, and then to the Water Garden.

Filming in the museum is prohibited. But noticing that in the artist’s first workshop-studio all the visitors were taking photographs, I also took a few shots.
The remaining photographs are taken from the website of the Claude Monet house museum.
Based on materials from the book by Cdaire Joyes “Claude Monet at Giverny. A Tour and History of the House and Garden”, Stipa, Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), 2010

Where is: 76 km northwest of Paris, 66 km southeast of Rouen, 7 km from Vernon.

How to get there:
- under its own power: by train to Vernon from Paris Saint-Lazare Station. At the local station, a bus awaits each train, which takes tourists 6 km to Monet's garden. You can also rent a bicycle (12 euros) at the "Café du Chemin de Fer" opposite the station. You can also take a walk: cross the river and then turn right onto the D5 road. Be careful: when you get to Giverny, turn left at the fork, otherwise you will have to go around the garden.
- by car: The journey will take about an hour. From Paris, take the A13 motorway towards Vernon/Giverny until exit 14.

How does it work: from April to October 10.00-18.00, Mon. closed.
Visit price: 5.5 euros – visit to the house and garden, 4 euros – visit to the garden only. Children and students receive discounts.

In the town of Giverny, located between Rouen and Paris, there is the House Museum of the French impressionist artist Claude Monet. Here he lived from 1883 until his death in 1926, trying again and again to depict in his canvases how, depending on the time of year, the sun illuminates the garden differently, which he laid out between the house and the river. There is no point in coming here to see the artist’s paintings - they are exhibited in the largest galleries in the world. Hundreds of thousands of tourists come here every year to admire the garden laid out around the house and try to feel how Monet managed to paint not with paints, but with light. 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.

Monet lived almost his entire life in houses with a garden: in Argenteuil, and in Veteil, and in Giverny, and he certainly captured them in his paintings. However, the artist considered the garden at Giverny his greatest masterpiece. After a visit to Monet, the German art critic Julius Mayer-Graff noted: " Monet reveals himself best with his garden, which he planted around his country house. He created it according to the same principles as his paintings... Each individual flower flows into the overall harmony of colors".

When Monet became the owner of this hectare of land, a local railway line passed through the site. Unfortunately, it gradually transformed into an ever-clogged highway, dividing the park into two separate areas.

IN northern part Park (Clos Normand) is the artist's house - a building with green shutters, painted an idyllic pastel pink. The rooms inside the house are painted in different colors, exactly as they were during Monet's life, and the walls of the rooms are still decorated with the artist's wonderful collection of Japanese prints, including wonderful works by Hokusai and Hiroshige. Now the famous Water Lily studio is a museum hall. It is decorated with beautifully executed reproductions of Monet's works. Souvenirs are also sold here.

TO southern part The Water Garden (Jardin d'Eau) park has a tunnel made under the embankment of the highway. In 1895, the artist, who had already achieved recognition, drained this swampy place with canals and ponds, planted them with water lilies and built the famous irregular, asymmetrical Japanese bridge, an exact copy which can be viewed today.

Here the artist created famous works, for example, "The Rock of Aiguille and the Porte d'Aval" or "The Mannport Gate in Etretat". Now located in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow: "Rocks at Belle-Ile", "Rocks at Etretat", " Haystack at Giverny", "Rouen Cathedral by Moon", "Rouen Cathedral in the Evening", "Water Lilies". (You can read about Rouen Cathedrals .)

No photographs can tell better about the garden than the paintings of the artist himself.

Claude Monet will live happily in Giverny for 43 years until the end of his days.

By this time, Claude Monet was already a famous artist, a recognized master of painting, his paintings were selling well, he was quite rich, surrounded by a loving family, friends, and colleagues. Monet's large family moved into the house in Giverny: the artist himself and his two sons Jean and Michel, his second wife Alice with her six children (two sons and four daughters).

In Giverny, Monet created a large garden (rearranged the old plot and developed a new one), in which he planted plants ordered by him and brought by friends from different parts of the world.

In those years, the artist was fascinated by Japanese culture, so he hired a Japanese gardener to care for the garden. In the garden on the new territory, Monet creates an artificial pond in which he grows water lilies.

The garden and pond with water lilies became Claude Monet's main love, a source of pleasure and inspiration, and the main object of creativity. Until the end of his days, Monet would paint almost exclusively his garden, finding in it more and more inexhaustible sources for creativity. Monet's many years of work on his garden and its depiction in paintings can be compared to hard scientific work.

Giverny is a small village on the right bank of the Seine, at its confluence with the Epthe River. At the end of the 19th century, about 300 people lived there permanently; now there are just over 500.

We can find out what Giverny looked like during the time of Claude Monet from the paintings of Monet himself and the canvases of artists who came to Claude Monet. In those years, Giverny was the center of French (and not only French) impressionism. Artists from different countries of the world came to Giverny and rented houses there for long periods. Among them there were a lot of Americans who wanted to study with the famous meter of impressionism. In those years, there was a whole colony of impressionist artists in Giverny. The Hôtel Baudy in Giverny has become a kind of artists' club. Impressionist exhibitions were regularly held there. An artists' colony existed in Giverny until the outbreak of the First World War. Nowadays the Museum of Impressionism is open in Giverny. Basically, there are paintings by American impressionist artists.

Claude Monet "View of the Village of Giverny", 1886, New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), New Orleans, USA.
American impressionist artist Theodore Robinson ( Theodore Robinson) (1852-1896) at the end of the 19th century he lived in Giverny for several years and became close friends with Claude Monet. "Giverny". 1889 Philips Collection, Washington
Theodore Robinson. "Valley of the Seine from the high bank of Giverny." 1892 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington.
Guy Rose ( Guy Rose), American artist (1867-1925). "Evening. Giverny." 1910 San Diego Museum of Art, USA.
Frederick Karl Frisek ( Frederick Carl Frieseke), American impressionist artist (1874-1939). "House in Giverny" 1912 Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid.

Claude Monet in his home in Giverny and in his studio working on the "Water Lilies" series.

Claude Monet in his garden at Giverny and the famous Japanese bridge entwined with wisteria.

Photo from the page Fondation Claude Monet on Facebook.

Claude Monet in the First Studio and on the main alley of the garden among the nasturtiums.

Photo from the site giverny-impression.com.

In Giverny, Claude Monet was always surrounded by his family. His sons had no children, so the artist had no grandchildren. But the children of Alice’s second wife left a large offspring.
Perhaps the closest to the artist was his stepdaughter Blanche (Blanche Monet-Hosched?), the daughter of the artist’s second wife Alice. Blanche was an artist herself and often assisted Claude Monet. She was married to Claude Monet's eldest son, Jean Monet. After his death in 1913, she returned to Claude Monet in Giverny and supported him until the end of his days. In her own works, Blanche painted the artist's garden and the surrounding area of ​​Giverny. One of the streets in Giverny now bears her name.

Claude Monet and many members of his family are buried in the cemetery in Giverny.

After the artist's death in 1926, the house and garden passed to his youngest son Michel. But he mostly lived in Paris, so Claude Monet’s stepdaughter Blanche continued to look after the garden. Her former head gardener, Louis Lebret, helped her in caring for the garden. Blanche maintained the house and garden, trying to preserve the artist's traditions.

Claude Monet's house and garden in Giverny were seriously damaged during the Nazi occupation in World War II. After Blanche's death in 1947, the artist's garden was practically abandoned for a long time. Claude Monet's house stood dilapidated after the Allied bombing, with broken windows. The youngest son of the artist Michel Monet, after the war in the 1950s, sold his father's collection of paintings for next to nothing. To whom? Who was in charge of Europe destroyed after the war, who had the money to buy paintings? - The Americans. Thus, the works of Claude Monet and his impressionist friends from the artist’s personal collection ended up in private collections and overseas museums. In 1966, Claude Monet's youngest son Michel Monet died in a car accident; in his will, he donated the artist's house and garden to the French Academy of Fine Arts, and the remaining collection of his father's paintings to the Marmottan Museum in Paris. Therefore, the Paris Marmottan-Monet Museum now contains the largest collection of paintings by the artist in the world.
In the 1970s, a major restoration of Claude Monet's house and garden in Giverny was carried out.

In 1980 it was organized Claude Monet Foundation (Fondation Claude Monet). This is a non-profit organization that maintains the garden and the Claude Monet House Museum in Giverny. The Claude Monet Foundation strives to maintain the house and garden as they were during the life of the great artist. A large garden with an area of ​​about 2 hectares is served by 8 gardeners.

In 1980, the garden and the Claude Monet House Museum in Giverny were opened to visitors. Now it is one of the iconic tourism destinations in France. About 500 thousand people visit it annually.

The museum is open during the warm season, from April to the end of October. Entrance ticket costs €9.50, €6.00 ​​for students, €5.00 for pensioners, free admission for children under 7 years old.

Excursions from Paris or Rouen are organized in Giverny.

During the warm season, from April 1 to October 31 inclusive, daily excursions to Giverny by bus or minivan are organized from Paris. The cost of the excursion ranges from 77 to 105 euros (in 2013).

You can get to the Monet House Museum in Giverny from Paris by car along the A13 highway towards Rouen. Most of the road is free; the toll section of the highway costs €1.80. After Vernon you should turn onto Giverny.

Or by train (45 minutes) from the Paris Saint-Lazare station (it was this station that Claude Monet depicted in his famous paintings) to Vernon, which is the closest town to Giverny.
From Vernon to Giverny you can get by bus, taxi, or renting a bicycle for €12. The journey from Vernon to Giverny by bicycle is approximately 6.5 km.
You can also get from Vernon to Giverny by water by yacht, boat or speedboat, or by walking about 5 km along the old railway line.

In Giverny there is an art studio called ArtStudy/Giverny for artists and photographers, which teaches painting and photography to everyone (in English) in the garden of Claude Monet and the surrounding area of ​​Giverny.

The Museum of Impressionism, opened in 1992, operates in Giverny. It is devoted mainly to the history of impressionism and the work of the American impressionists. Various exhibitions are regularly held there. The Impressionist Museum has its own very beautiful garden.

Plan of Claude Monet's estate in Giverny.

At the top of the plan is the main building and Clos Normand, at the bottom is the Japanese Water Garden.

Photo from the site giverny.org.

House-Museum of Claude Monet in Giverny, bird's eye view.

Main building and flower garden of Clos Normand.

Claude Monet's garden consists of two parts:

1. Flower garden in front of the house, which is called Clos Normand.

2. Across the road is Japanese water garden with the famous pond with water lilies and a Japanese bridge.
In 1893, Claude Monet purchased a plot of land across the railway from Clos Normand, on which he laid out a Japanese-style garden with a pond. A small river flows there, one of the tributaries of the Ept River. Having blocked it, Claude Monet built an artificial pond.

House of Claude Monet . View from the garden. Brick house with a pink facade.
The artist's house is surrounded by flowers. In spring there are tulips, in summer and autumn there are flower beds with red geraniums. The facade of the house is covered with wild grapes. All decorative elements of the house and garden: benches, steps, railings, shutters, as well as the Japanese bridge are painted in a single green color (Monet green shade).
This green color blends harmoniously with the pink facade of the house and the pink and bright red flowers in the garden.

The window of the First Studio overlooks a small rose garden.	Morning glory on the facade of the house	The fence of the house, the same Clos Normand. In the foreground are the green garage doors and the Second Studio, with the main building in the distance to the left.

Interior decoration of Claude Monet's house. This is how the great artist lived. Please note that on the walls of the house there are a lot of Japanese prints that Monet was so passionate about.

The interior of the house looks exactly the same as under Claude Monet: the artist’s first studio, a yellow dining room with Japanese prints, the bedroom of Monet and his second wife Alice, a kitchen lined with blue tiles. The furniture and other decorative elements are authentic to what they were during the life of the famous artist.

Claude Monet's first studio was restored not so long ago. In this room the artist kept his paintings, which he did not want to sell; they were important stages in his work. The studio looks as if the artist has just left it. The first studio is located in the main building. In total, Claude Monet had three studios in Giverny, the second and third were located in separate buildings. The artist equipped his last studio at the age of 76. Only the First Studio is open to tourists.

	Yellow dining room	Kitchen
	Yellow dining room	Yellow dining room
Kitchen	First studio	Yellow dining room

1. Clos Normand flower garden

Clos Normand means "Norman fence" in French. The garden is so named because it is surrounded by a wide stone wall. In fact, such a serious fencing is not very typical for Norman gardens; it is rather an exception. But such a wall is a reliable protection against rabbits and other animals, as well as unwanted visitors.

When Claude Monet moved to Giverny, there was an apple orchard and a vegetable garden (kitchen garden) in front of the house. A wide alley lined with cypress and spruce trees led from the gate to the house. Along the road there were flower beds and trimmed boxwood. The artist really liked the garden, and he immediately began remodeling it, deciding to create the garden of his dreams here.

Four-meter trees on the main alley created dense shadow in the garden. Claude Monet loved flowers very much and understood that they would not grow well in the shade. After much debate with his wife Alice, who liked the shady garden, he cut down all the trees in the main alley, leaving only two trees (yew) at the beginning of the alley. At first, Claude Monet left tall tree stumps that were used as supports for climbing roses. Then green metal arches and pergolas appeared along the main alley, which still exist today. The main alley was decorated with fragrant roses and a carpet of nasturtiums. The artist liked the flowers to smoothly “flow” along the road, like water in a river.

Claude Monet replaced apple trees with cherries and Japanese plums or Japanese apricots. He covered the entire space of the garden with a carpet of thousands of flowers: daffodils, tulips, oriental poppies, irises, peonies, dahlias, etc.

Claude Monet arranged his garden like a true artist. He worked with perspective, played with light and shadow, and selected the optimal lighting for the house. On the left side of the garden, he created a rectangular flowerbed of flowers in individual shades, which resembled an artist's palette. Practicing gardening as painting, he created a sunny garden, which, thanks to the talent of modern gardeners, shows us its beauty and magic every year.

Now in front of the artist’s house there is a regular garden with straight alleys. Clos Normand is a magnificent garden, constantly in bloom from early spring to late autumn. Claude Monet laid out his garden in this way and planned the planting of plants and flowers in it, so that in any month from April to October something would bloom there: trees, shrubs, flowers. Thanks to this, the artist’s garden in Giverny looks different every month. There is a calendar of flowering plants in Claude Monet's garden. It is posted on the sites giverny.org And fondation-monet.com. Flowering in the garden is completely renewed 2 or 3 times per season.

		Garden in March
Central alley, pergolas		Nasturtium carpet
Daffodils bloom
	Amaranth "Queue de renard"
	Garden in October
Cat in a pink alley		Path among the irises
	Pergolas in the garden
Panorama of the garden in Giverny, August 2013		Roses in the garden
	Trees in bloom	Alley in the garden, carpet of nasturtiums
Laburnum, bean anagira or Golden shower	Clematis	Rudbeckia
Fuchsia		Flower garden near the house

Flowers in the garden of Claude Monet. Huge variety of colors. Here you can find both decorative garden flowers and meadow flowers typical of the Seine basin.
I think the artist himself would appreciate today’s garden in Giverny. He would be pleased if he could see these magnificent flowers.

	Daisies	Violet tricolor
Irises	Path among the irises	Oriental poppy
		Peonies
Roses	Tulips	Red poppies
Peony	Irises	Tulips

2. Japanese garden with a pond with water lilies and a Japanese bridge.

Claude Monet was always interested in reflections in water. While still in Argenteuil, he set up a floating studio on a boat and painted on the water. Therefore, water had to be present in the garden of his dreams.
At his new site in Giverny, with the consent of the local authorities, he blocks the river, a tributary of the Epte, creating an artificial pond.

Now Claude Monet's Japanese Water Garden is surrounded by tall trees that hide it from the outside world. Tourists get here from the Clos Normand garden through a tunnel under the road. And they immediately appear as if on the canvases of a great artist.

In the center of the water garden is the famous pond in which water lilies grow. An elegant Japanese bridge spans the pond. Monet painted it green, like all the other elements of the garden, (a shade of "Monet green") to distinguish it from the red that is traditionally used in Japan. The Japanese bridge is located on the same line as the main alley in Clos Normand.

In general, there are only 6 bridges in the Japanese Water Garden. The main Japanese bridge, which Claude Monet loved to paint most of all, is covered with wisteria. The remaining bridges are small. Opposite the main bridge, on the other side of the pond, there is an elegant small bridge.

Yellow irises		Bamboo
Small Bridge	Small Bridge	At dawn

And this is what the Japanese bridge looks like up close. It is covered with wisteria. This is a climbing vine that blooms with fragrant lilac flowers, collected in huge, flowing clusters, reminiscent of bunches of grapes. Their aroma is reminiscent of jasmine.
The main Japanese bridge in Claude Monet's garden is surrounded by two wisterias: lavender and white. They bloom in late April - early May, with lavender wisteria blooming first, followed by white wisteria. The artist specially planted two different wisteria to prolong the flowering on the bridge. Wisteria blooms for the first time in the spring, even before the leaves appear. And this is the most beautiful moment. Wisteria blooms again in July, when it is already completely covered with foliage. The second flowering is not so abundant and beautiful. But in summer the pond with water lilies looks more beautiful.

	Lavender wisteria blooms
Tourists on the bridge. July, wisteria blooms again.		Japanese bridge in spring
White and lavender wisteria bloom

Japanese garden and pond with water lilies

The oriental atmosphere of the garden is conveyed by the choice of plants: woody bamboo ( Phyllostachys aurea), ginkgo ( Ginkgo biloba L.), maples, Japanese peonies, white lilies, weeping willows that so wonderfully frame the pond. Claude Monet himself planted water lilies ("nympheas") in his pond. He talked about it this way: “I love water, but I also love flowers. So when the pond was filled with water, I decided to decorate it with flowers. I just took a catalog and chose at random, that’s all.”

Volunteers in Giverny tell a slightly different story about water lilies. The fact is that in the 19th century in France, only white water lilies grew in the wild. Pink and yellow water lilies were exotic, they were not frost-resistant, and had to be taken into the greenhouse for the winter. At the end of the 19th century, breeder Bory Latour-Marliac crossed wild white water lilies with exotic ones and developed frost-resistant colored water lilies in a whole palette of colors. He exhibited his colorful water lilies at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889 (the same year the Eiffel Tower was built), and it was there that Claude Monet first saw them. This was 4 years before he built a pond in his garden. Perhaps, if Bory Latour-Marliac had not created new types of water lilies, Claude Monet would not have painted his famous masterpieces from the “Water Lilies” series.

Claude Monet was very proud of his water garden; he liked to receive guests here. He spent a lot of time in the garden, contemplating it for hours. The gardener maintaining the garden constantly removed every dried leaf so that the harmony would not be disturbed.

In 1897, Claude Monet began painting his famous Water Lilies series here. Striving to convey the reflection of the sky in the water, its contact with the surface of the water with the help of floating dots of color, Claude Monet reached the heights of mastery in his painting. The vibration of color on his canvases evokes a sea of ​​feelings and emotions.
Claude Monet created over 270 canvases on which he depicted his water garden.

	Japanese garden in spring
		Azalea blooms
Famous kushins or nymphs	Claude Monet was very fond of this perspective: willow branches come into contact with water. From this point he wrote his famous series "Water Lilies".

Claude Monet loved chickens, loved fresh eggs, so in the corner of the garden he always kept a small poultry yard with chickens and turkeys.

The Claude Monet Foundation (Fondation Claude Monet) tries to completely recreate the environment of 100 years ago, and therefore now maintains a small poultry yard with chickens and turkeys next to the artist’s house, near the kitchen. Moreover, like Claude Monet himself, every year the Foundation maintains different breeds of chickens.
Photo on the right: a chicken from a chicken coop in Claude Monet's garden at Giverny.

Inhabitants of the poultry yard in Giverny.

From the category of curiosities. American tourists always ask what zone Giverny is located in (meaning winter hardiness zones, USDA zones). The guides and volunteers of Giverny are at a loss - the American division into zones is not accepted in France. To explain climatic conditions, they tell what temperatures are observed in winter (in Giverny there is snow, and the pond is almost always frozen). Americans don’t understand this either, since they only know degrees Fahrenheit, while in France, like throughout Europe, the Celsius temperature scale is used. So, especially for Americans, the Claude Monet Foundation, guides and volunteers found out that Giverny is located in zone 8.

The French are planning to apply to include Claude Monet's House Museum and Gardens in Giverny on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

It is very interesting to compare modern photographs of the garden and pond with the paintings of Claude Monet. And even better - see it all with your own eyes.

Photo: Spedona, Amadalvarez, Remi Jouan, Gortyna, Ariane Cauderlier, Amadalvarez, Stéphanie De Nadaï, Michal Osmenda, Selena N. B. H., Mussklprozz, Gortyna, Popolon, Anabase4, Remi Jouan, Michal Osmenda, Fondation Monet, Donar Reiskoffer, Metzner, Ariane Cauderlier , Comité Régional de tourisme de Normandie, Sergey Prokopenko, Andrew Horne, from the websites of Fondation Claude Monet www.fondation-monet.fr, giverny.org, giverny-impression.com and from the page Fondation Claude Coin a Giverny on Facebook.

The small village of Giverny appeared on maps more than a thousand years ago, but is known mainly as the place where the world famous impressionist Claude Monet lived for 43 years and where a huge number of his paintings were created. Only 80 km separate this picturesque place from Paris. Thanks to the presence of a master famous during his lifetime, the inconspicuous village became a haven and resting place for many artists.

At one time, Matisse, Cezanne, Renoir, and Pissarro walked along the streets of Giverny.

How to get there

The most romantic way is to rush to Giverny on your own. The train from the Paris Saint-Lazare train station goes to Vernon, where a bus is usually waiting to take you the remaining 6 km to Monet's garden. You can rent a bicycle for 12 EUR at Café du Chemin de Fer, which is opposite the station. This short path can also be walked: cross the river and then turn right onto the D5 road. Be careful: when you get to Giverny, turn left at the fork, otherwise you will have to go around the garden.

By car, the journey from Paris takes about an hour. Take the A13 motorway towards Vernon/Giverny until exit 14.

Prices on the page are as of August 2018.

Search for flights to Paris (closest airport to Giverny)

Claude Monet's Garden

In addition to the fact that the pretty village became the home and creative workshop of Monet as an artist, it best illustrates his outstanding abilities as a landscape designer and gardener. After all, it was the expanses of Giverny that became a blank canvas on which the artist experimented with varieties of roses, hyacinths, and irises, combined prim ferns and lush peonies, and shaded faded forget-me-nots with lush poppies. And it was the landscapes of this garden that formed the basis for Monet’s best works.

Now admirers of Monet’s work are coming here from all over the world to see with their own eyes a pond with water lilies and a Japanese lace bridge spanning the pond. The artist also worked on this part of the garden with his own hands, painstakingly creating for himself a source of inspiration for the next 20 years. Here he created the famous works “Aiguille Rock and Porte d’Aval”, “Mannport Gate in Etretat”, “Rocks in Belle-Ile”, “Rocks in Etretat”, “Haystack in Giverny”, “Water Lilies”.

Monet's estate in Giverny

After the artist's death, his son Michel transferred the estate to the Academy of Fine Arts. Its employees still carefully maintain the appearance of the house and garden in the form in which the owner left them, turning this place into the house-museum of the French impressionist artist (Musée Claude Monet).

You won't find Monet's works inside, but the house, painted in bright colors, is filled with everyday details of the master's life, and the hall is the famous Water Lily studio, decorated with reproductions of Monet's works. The best time to visit the garden is May and June, when the wisteria rhododendrons begin to bloom around the pond.

Practical information

Address: Giverny, Rue Claude Monet, 65-75. Official website of the estate (available in French, English and Japanese).

Opening hours: daily from April to November, from 9:30 to 18:00.

Admission: 9.50 EUR (adults), 5.50 EUR (children over 7 years old and students), children under 7 years old entry free.

Popular hotels in Giverny

Sights of Giverny

A walk through the outskirts of a Norman village is an opportunity to look at the world through the eyes of Monet; it is impossible to be indifferent to the plush green hills, fragrant groves, stone houses surrounded by well-crafted wooden fences, brave irises that make their way through the road dust, wherever they please, and not where the hand of man commands. And immediately you want to grab a pencil, pen, brush, camera and capture the mesmerizing beauty of a simple rural landscape

Museum of Impressionism

In addition to the Monet family nest, Giverny has other attractions, such as the Museum of Impressionism, created to host temporary exhibitions and installations by impressionist artists. It happens that even Monet’s works are exhibited in his halls. By the way, quite recently this building was called the Museum of American Art and specialized in the work of American artists, but it was decided to expand the geographical boundaries of art that spanned the whole world.

The museum is open from the beginning of April to the end of October. By the way, it is possible to sell combined tickets that give a discount when visiting several attractions in Giverny. Address: Giverny, rue Claude Monet, 99. More information about opening hours and discounts on tickets can be found on the museum's website (in English).

Cafe

You can take a pleasant break by visiting house no. 81 on rue Claude Monet, where a former hotel is located, and today there is a nice restaurant, Hotel Baudy. This place is a real legend: Cezanne, Renoir, Sisley, Rodin once drank coffee at the tables of this cafe, and at the end of the 19th century, only artists stayed on the upper floors of the hotel. The “Hotel for American Artists” even preserved a number of paintings and sketches by now famous masters, with which the guests paid the hostess for their stay. Now you can taste French cuisine by paying 25-30 EUR for lunch.

Monet's family crypt

Next to the Church of St. Radegund is the family burial place of Monet. The ancient church is a rural, simple temple, striking in its antiquity and special atmosphere. Monet married for the second time in this church, and was later buried in the family crypt. The oldest street in the village, rue aux Juifs, in the medieval part of Giverny, is imbued with a special charm, as evidenced by the ancient buildings and ruins of a medieval monastery.

• Where to stay: The starting point for traveling around the outskirts of the capital of France is best to choose directly