Fondation Monet In Giverny
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The Fondation Claude Monet is a nonprofit that manages the house and gardens of
Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
in Giverny, France, where Monet lived and painted for 43 years. Monet was inspired by his gardens, and spent years transforming them, planting thousands of flowers. He believed that it was important to surround himself with nature and paint outdoors. He created many paintings of his house and gardens, especially of water lilies in the pond, the Japanese bridge, and a weeping willow tree. With a total of 530,000 visitors in 2010, it is the second most visited tourist site in Normandy after the island of Mont Saint-Michel. The house and gardens have been listed among the '' Maisons des Illustres'' and classified as a '' Jardin Remarquable''. The estate was classified as a in 1976. Monet's paintings of the gardens, especially the sites' pond with water lilies, are exhibited in dozens of major collections.


History

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
lived and painted in Giverny from 1883 to his death in 1926, and directed the renovation of the house, retaining its pink-painted walls. Colours from the painter's own palette were used for the interior -green for the doors and shutters, yellow in the dining room, complete with Japanese Prints from the 18th and 19th centuries, and blue for the kitchen. Monet had the nearby river Epte partially diverted for the gardens and hired up to seven gardeners to tend to it. Monet gained much of his inspiration from his gardens and believed it was important to surround himself with nature and paint outdoors. When Monet died in 1926, the entire estate was passed on to his younger son Michel. As he never spent time in Giverny, it was left to Blanche Hoschedé Monet, the daughter of Monet’s second wife
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
and widow of his elder son, Jean, to look after the garden with the help of former head gardener Louis Lebret. After Blanche died in 1947, the garden was left untended. Michel Monet died heirless in a car crash in 1966. He had bequeathed the estate to the
Académie des beaux-arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...
. From 1977 onwards, Gérald Van der Kemp, then curator at the
Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
, and his wife Florence played a key role in the restoration of the neglected house and gardens. In a bid to raise funds, the couple appealed to American donors through the "Versailles Foundation-Giverny Inc.". Substantial work needed to be done; the floors and ceiling beams were rotting while a staircase had already collapsed. Most of the window panes in both the greenhouse and main house had shattered long ago, and three large trees had begun to grow in the studio.
Walter Annenberg Walter Hubert Annenberg (March 13, 1908 – October 1, 2002) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and diplomat. Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included ownership of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer' ...
, an American philanthropist that owned
Triangle Publications Triangle Publications Inc. was an American media group based first in Philadelphia, and later in Radnor, Pennsylvania. It was a privately held corporation, with the majority of its stock owned by Walter Annenberg and his sisters. Its holdings ...
, funded an underpass for easier access to the water garden so that guests would no longer have to go across a busy road. The ''Fondation Claude Monet'' was created in 1980 as the estate was declared public. It soon became very successful, and now welcomes both French and international visitors from April to November. When Gérald Van der Kemp died in 2001, Florence became the curator of the Fondation Monet and continued renovating the property until her death in 2008. Hugues Gall was appointed Director of the Fondation by the Académie des beaux-arts in March 2008. As one of the most visited tourist destinations in France, strategies around ensuring long term protection for the garden are observed as a matter of protocol.


Restoration and donations

Americans donated almost all of the $7 million needed to restore Monet's home and gardens at Giverny in the 1970s. These donations were part of American diplomacy to France since "France lacked the American tradition of private giving as well as the tax concessions that encourage it." Starting in 1969, under U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, Americans could claim tax deductions for their contributions to charities. Nixon encouraged Americans to donate to France. "I felt that encouraging Americans to contribute to the heritage of France, one of our oldest allies, would be one way to remind ourselves that the past in many ways is infinitely more important than the present." For his service, Nixon was inducted into the Academie des Beaux-Arts as one of the 15 foreign members, following former President Dwight D. Eisenhower's induction in 1952. The next ten years were spent restoring the garden and the house to their former state. Not much was left after the second World War. "The greenhouse panes and the windows in the house were reduced to shards after the bombings. Floors and ceiling beams had rotted away, a staircase had collapsed. Three trees were even growing in the big studio. The pond had to be dug again. In the Clos normand, soil was removed to find the original ground level. Then the same flower species as those discovered by Monet in his time were planted." British gardener James Priest, who has been in charge of restorations made to Monet's garden, taught himself the ways of the painter, particularly Monet's watercoloring. In 2014 Priest reported that although the garden was disfigured by some previous gardeners and is worn-down from time, it is still beautiful and has potential. He says that the lily-ponds remained in a similar state, and need restoration in Monet's color palette in returning the graded cool tones to the flower beds.


House

Visitors have access to: * The ground floor: the blue salon (the reading room), the "épicerie" (the larder), the living room/studio, the dining room and the blue-tiled kitchen. * The first floor: the family rooms, including Monet's which was renovated in March 2013 as well as Alice Hoschedé's bedroom and their private apartments. Also visible is the room of Blanche Hoschedé, which was recreated in 2013 based on archives and existing elements present in the house. * The studio next to the home, where Monet painted his large ''Water Lilies'' paintings and murals, including those exhibited in Paris' Musée de l'Orangerie. This studio is now the Foundation's gift shop.


Gardens

The Gardens are divided into two distinctive parts, which have been restored according to Monet's own specifications, the formal Clos-Normand and the water garden with the water lilies pond and a Japanese bridge. The Clos-Normand was modelled after Monet's own artistic vision when he settled in Giverny. He spent years transforming the garden into a living ''en plein air'' painting, planting thousands of flowers in straight-lined patterns. In 1893 Monet acquired a vacant piece of land across the road from the Clos-Normand which he then transformed into a water garden by diverting water from the stream ''Ru'', an arm of the Epte river. That garden became famous during his lifetime with his series of monumental paintings of its water lilies, the ''Nymphéas''. The water garden is marked by Monet's fascination for
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, with its green Japanese bridge and oriental plants. The now famous water lilies were meticulously tended by a gardener employed for that sole purpose.


Representations of the garden by Claude Monet

Claude Monet - Peony Garden - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Jardin de pivoines'', 1887, National Museum of Western Art (
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
) Monet - Im Garten - 1895.jpeg, ''Dans le jardin'', 1895, Fondation et Collection Emil G. Bührle (
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
) File:The Water-Lily Pond - Google Arts & Culture.jpg, ''Water Lilies and the Japanese Bridge'', 1897–1899, Princeton University Art Museum Monet - Monets Garten in Giverny.jpg, '' Le Jardin de l'artiste à Giverny'', 1900,
Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...
, (
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) Claude Monet 056.jpg, ''Le Jardin de l'artiste à Giverny'', 1900, Yale University Art Gallery, (
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) The Garden in Flower Claude Oscar Monet 1900.jpg, ''Le Jardin en fleurs'', 1900 Claude Monet, La grande allée à Giverny (1900).jpg, ''La Grande allée à Giverny'', 1900, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal File:Monet - Seerosen 1906.jpg, ''Water Lilies'', 1906,
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...
Claude Monet - Flowering Arches, Giverny.JPG, ''Les Arceaux fleuris, Giverny'', 1913,
Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest art museum, museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,0 ...
, Phoenix Claude Monet - Yellow Irises - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Iris jaunes'', 1914, National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo) WLA metmuseum The Path through the Irises by Claude Monet.jpg, ''Le Chemin à travers les iris'', 1914,
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
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) 1914-26 Claude Monet Agapanthus MOMA NY anagoria.JPG, ''Les Agapanthes'', 1914,
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, (New York) Monet - Das Haus in den Rosen.jpeg, ''La Maison à travers les roses'', 1917, Albertina, (
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
) Claude Monet, Weeping Willow.JPG, '' Weeping Willow'', 1918,
Columbus Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collec ...
Monet- Der Rosenweg in Giverny.jpeg, ''Le Chemin de roses à Giverny'', 1920, Musée Marmottan (Paris) Claude Monet - House among the Roses, the (1925).jpg, ''La Maison entre les roses'', 1925,
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (, ; named after its founder, Baron Heinrich Thyssen, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Museo del Prado, Prado Museum on one of the city ...
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Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
) Claude Monet - Wisteria - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Glycine'', 1925,
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The Japanese prints collection

The majority of Monet's paintings are kept in the
Musée Marmottan Monet Musée Marmottan Monet () is an art museum in Paris, France, dedicated to artist Claude Monet. The collection features over three hundred Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings by Claude Monet, including his 1872 ''Impression, Sunrise''. ...
. However, Monet's house is home to a collection of more than 200 Japanese ukiyo-e prints from the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the most notable pieces are works by Kitagawa
Utamaro was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his ''Bijin-ga, bijin ōkubi-e'' "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s. He also produ ...
(1753–1806), Katsushika
Hokusai , known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' includes the iconic print ''The Gr ...
(1760–1849) and Utagawa
Hiroshige or , born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series '' The Fifty-three Stations ...
(1797–1858).


In popular culture

Much of the 2006 BBC docudrama '' The Impressionists'', which is told from Claude Monet's viewpoint, was filmed at the home, gardens, and pond.


See also

*
Musée Marmottan Monet Musée Marmottan Monet () is an art museum in Paris, France, dedicated to artist Claude Monet. The collection features over three hundred Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings by Claude Monet, including his 1872 ''Impression, Sunrise''. ...
, Paris *
List of single-artist museums This is a list of single-artist museum, single–artist museums, which are museums displaying the work, or bearing the name, of a single visual artist. See also * :Museums devoted to one artist * List of art museums * List of most visited art mu ...


References


Bibliography

* Claire Joyes, ''Claude Monet à Giverny, la visite et la mémoire des lieux'', Éditions Claude Monet/Gourcuff/Gradenigo, 2010, * Hélène Rochette, ''Maisons d'écrivains et d'artistes. Paris et ses alentours'', pp. 224–229, Parigramme, Paris, 2004,


External links


Fondation Monet website

''Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism''
exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{coord, 49.0750, N, 1.5356, E, source:wikidata, display=title Monet, Giverny
Giverny Giverny () is a Communes of France, commune in the northern French Departments of France, department of Eure.Biographical museums in France Monet, Giverny Gardens in France Garden museums Japanese gardens
Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
Maisons des Illustres Open-air museums in France