Claude Monet Giverny Paintings

Claude Monet painted The Artist's Garden at Giverny in 1900. When he purchased the Giverny estate, Monet completely redesigned the flower garden that already existed in front of the house. He became passionate about surrounding his home with flowers, and his preference for blue and violet flowers inspired him to plant most of his spring beds with irises.

When the flowers bloomed, Monet painted them with short, thick strokes of pure pigment. In this painting he creates the floating effect of the iris beds, described by a visitor as a haze of lilac in the sun.

Outside his estate, Claude Monet roamed the rolling hills of Giverny seeking lush displays of color to paint. See Poppy Field in a Hollow in the next section.

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Claude Monet painted Poppy Field in a Hollow near Giverny in 1885. The region around Giverny had rolling hills to the north and cultivated fields of poppies and wheat to the south. Monet roamed these fields during the first years he lived in the village.

Although Monet began to plant in his garden shortly after he moved in, he had no interest in painting it at such an early stage in its development. He turned instead to the nearby poppy fields, which offered a lush display of natural color to paint.

Claude Monet also enjoyed painting the daughters of companion Alice Hoschedé amidst the Giverny wildflowers. See Woman with an Umbrella turned towards the right in the next section.

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Claude Monet painted Woman with an Umbrella turned towards the right in 1886. He lost interest in figure painting after his wife Camille's death, but, in Giverny, he enjoyed painting companion Alice Hoschedé's daughters outdoors in the fields of wildflowers.

Monet painted Suzanne in a white summer dress under a green parasol twice, once facing right and once facing left. The painting is reminiscent of Woman with a Parasol -- Madame Monet and Her Son from 1875.

Claude Monet's children often accompanied him when he went out to paint. See his son Jean in Springtime (Le Printemps) in the next section.

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Claude Monet painted Springtime (Le Printemps) in 1886. When he settled in Giverny, Monet rediscovered the domestic contentment he had so valued during his early years in Argenteuil. Alice Hoschedé was an excellent and patient companion, and their children often joined him when he went out to the fields to paint.

Here, his older son, Jean, and Alice's second youngest daughter, Suzanne, sit under the white petals of a fruit tree in full flower. The color sparkles, capturing the refreshing quality of the clear spring air.

Claude Monet loved to paint scenes of trees in bloom. Learn about the flowering poplars of Bend in the Epte River near Giverny in the next section.

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Claude Monet painted Bend in the Epte River near Giverny in 1888. The rare sight of the poplar trees in full flower inspired this painting.

The flickering petals of the blossoms, painted with a dabbing stroke in pale pigment, sparkle in the sun. Monet's light and subtle touch is in perfect accord with this fleeting, natural spectacle.

Just a few years later, Claude Monet would begin construction on the water garden at his own Giverny estate. Read the story of Monet's Waterlilies, night effect in the next section.

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Claude Monet painted Waterlilies, night effect from 1897 to 1898. He began the construction of his water garden in 1893 and, with a gardener's patience, waited several years as the new plantings took root and water lilies bloomed.

Monet did not paint the garden until 1897, when he produced a set of studies of the flowers as they floated on the surface of the pond. The contrast of the luminous pale petals and the nearly opaque water intrigued him, but he set the studies aside, uncertain how to proceed with his subject.

Claude Monet's desire to paint water scenes often brought him and his children to the river in Giverny. See Monet's The Boat at Giverny in the next section.

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Claude Monet completed The Boat at Giverny in 1887. That summer, he painted the daughters of companion Alice Hoschedé on the river in his rowboat.

In some paintings the girls are fishing; in others they simply relax in the warmth of the sun. One of the daughters, Blanche, a promising young painter, often assisted her stepfather (Monet and Alice would wed in 1892). She carried Monet's canvases, preparing his palette, or painting at his side.

In later years, Claude Monet would begin to paint an intense series of water scenes from his Giverny garden pond. See Monet's Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies in the next section.

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Claude Monet painted Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies in 1899. The artist admitted that he spent many hours contemplating the lilies on the water long before he picked up his palette.

Monet's first intense period of work at the pond began in the summer of 1899. When the weather turned cold, he completed six works to his satisfaction in the studio.

The following year, Claude Monet would afford his undivided attention to his water garden. See the more lush, saturated tones of The Waterlily Pond, Harmony in Pink in the next section.

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Claude Monet painted The Waterlily Pond, Harmony in Pink in 1900. Though Monet spent the early months of 1900 painting in London, that summer, he turned his undivided attention to the water garden.

Monet's new paintings reveal a looser, more descriptive stroke. He heated his palette, replacing the cool lavender and silver with more saturated tones of violet, rose, and green. More lush than before, the new paintings celebrate nature's power of self-renewal as if eternal summer prevailed in the water garden.

Claude Monet added more paintings to his intense waterlily series throughout the summer of 1900. See Monet's Water Lily Pool in the next section.

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Water Lily Pool was painted by Claude Monet in 1900. At the end of the summer, he added six more paintings to his series. They were exhibited at Durand-Ruel's gallery in Paris that November.

 Some critics gave these Monet works lukewarm reviews, comparing the images to Japanese prints that featured the characteristic arched footbridge. Others questioned why Monet had chosen such a narrow subject. But art critic Julien Leclerq possessed the foresight to suggest that the paintings represented an unfolding idea that people would understand more over time.

A few years later, Claude Monet would create another short series of more expressive water garden paintings. See the different vantage point he took in Waterlily Pond in the next section.

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Claude Monet worked on Waterlily Pond from 1904 to 1905. It was one in another short series of water garden pieces he painted during the summer months of those two years.

Monet's brush stroke -- precise and pristine in the paintings of 1899 -- took on an expressive vitality that was unprecedented in any of the earlier works. He also took a different vantage point, which resulted in a less contained view.

Claude Monet was just as passionate about planting and painting the flower gardens surrounding his home. See the vivid nasturtiums and dahlias of Monet's Garden in Giverny in the next section.

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Claude Monet painted Garden in Giverny in 1902. Because he disliked the formal quality of the main path that led to the door of his house, Monet thinned the stands of spruce and cypress trees flanking the walk.

 In their place he planted dense beds of salmon pink and garnet nasturtiums as well as fuchsia and dahlias that bloomed through the summer. Monet's wife Alice protested as he eliminated trees, but Monet insisted they were blocking the light for his flowers.

In the following years, Claude Monet would continue to plant and paint the serene sanctuary of flowers around his home. See the resplendent Flowering Arches in the final section.

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Claude Monet painted Flowering Arches, Giverny in 1913. To unite the flower garden in front of his house with the one across the road, Monet planted arched trellises to carry climbing roses. The flowering arches hid all traces of the nearby rail line, enclosing the water garden as a serene sanctuary cut off from the distractions of the modern world.

To paint the arches, Monet positioned his easel on the east bank of the pond to gain a broad view across the waters. Using vivid colors for the resplendent display of the roses in full bloom, Monet muted his tones to portray the shimmering reflections on the pond's glassy surface.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Debra N. Mancoff is an art historian and lecturer and the author of numerous books on nineteenth-century European and American painting, including Publication International, Ltd.'s, Impressionism and Van Gogh. Other titles include Sunflowers, Monet's Garden in Art, Van Gogh: Fields and Flowers, and Mary Cassatt: Reflections of Women's Lives. Ms. Mancoff is a scholar in residence at the Newberry Library.