Ten
years after Monet and his family went to live at Giverny,
Monet bought a piece of land behind his garden and on the
other side of the railway. The land had a stream running through
it, the Ru, a tributary of the River Epte, which itself flows
into the River Seine. On that land he had a small pond dug;
later he expanded this to the size of the present large pond
which is on the site.
Inspired
by his love of Eastern imagery, Monet included in his water
garden a large Japanese style bridge and several smaller ones
crossing the stream, as well as using planting such as wisterias,
weeping willows, hardy bamboos and azaleas to create an 'Eastern'
effect. As he also collected Japanese prints he had a good
source of inspiration for this. His large collection of Japanese
prints has now been restored and is displayed in several rooms
of the house.
When
Monet first dammed the stream to create the large pond and
water garden the local inhabitants feared that they would
lose the water supply to their fields, or that the water supply
would be poisoned by Monet's exotic plants, but these proved
not to be the case.
Nowadays
Monet's water lilies garden is reached via an underground
passage, but Monet himself had to cross the railway and a
road to reach it. In the water garden the great artist fulfilled
his passion for mist and transparency, discovering subtle
blendings of pale light which created mystery and beauty.
Painting his large pond and its water lilies (nymphea sp.)
kept him entranced for twenty years and during that time he
produced his famous giant canvases of water lily and water
impressions.
Monet
lived in the large pink house at the top of the garden between
1883 to 1926. In 1966 Monet's house and garden were left to
The Académie des Beaux-Arts by Michel Monet. Restored in the
late 1970's and early 1980's and now part of the Claude Monet
Foundation, the garden has been extensively replanted to take
it back to the way it was in Monet's time. During the restorations
the pond had to be dug afresh, for it had diminished to a
shallow swamp, and a replacement for the famous Japanese bridge
had to be made, for the original was too decayed to be saved.
We
have devoted a separate page to Monet's paintings of his flower
garden (click
here). Below we present various prints of Monet's water
garden and the water lilies at Giverny.
-
Don't lose this page - we recommend book marking it now -
|
