Why you need to visit Monet's garden

When the painter Claude Monet spotted Giverny from a train window while travelling from Normandy to Paris, he saw a sad, empty house in an abandoned garden. But this was precisely the place he had dreamed of, the perfect home for an expanding family, just one hour northwest of Paris.

Credit: Jean-Luc Ichard

With his heart set on the village, 43-year-old Monet, his second wife, Alice, and their eight children moved from Vertheuil on the River Seine to Giverny in 1883. At last, Monet had not just an inspiring environment in which to paint but one where he could orchestrate a continuous sequence of blossoms and foliage throughout the year.

The artist planted, weeded and transplanted until this outdoor studio, its ever-changing subjects now thriving, was to his satisfaction. By 1901, no fewer than five gardeners were needed to tend the garden.

The long, pink-stuccoed house with green shutters served as both an anchor and a backdrop for the floral display of the Clos Normand. Divided by the Grand Allée, a central path 3m wide, and several smaller pebble paths, the 1.2ha Clos Normand is the principal garden at Giverny—a meadow stretching across the front of the house and down to a country lane. Here, Monet planned long, rectangular flowerbeds that ran parallel each other from the top to the bottom of the garden.

Walking back towards the house under trellised arcs of roses, whatever the season, one marvels at the way Monet choreographed the progression of colour, paying attention to height, season and foliage, all to complement the tones of the house.

By paying particular attention to the way early-morning mist created veiled colours, as well as to the sharp silhouettes and shadows cast by the midday sun, Monet incorporated the power of light in the garden’s overall scheme.

Credit: Studio-Annika

Once the flowerbeds had been planted and painted from multiple perspectives, the artist turned his energy into creating a water garden. In 1891, across the country lane from the Clos Normand, Monet diverted the Rû—a tributary of the River Eure—to make a pond.

Winding and intersecting paths were designed around the water to create a greater sense of space in this new garden. It is here that Monet’s beloved nymphéas—delicate pink and white blossoms resting on broad lily pads—appear to float among the clouds as reflections interplay with sky and water.

The artist planted a Japanese wisteria, still rambling along an iron arbour today, to frame the pond. Clusters of yellow irises edge the composition in early summer, accenting the arc of the Japanese bridge.

This graceful note is just one element of Japanese art found at Giverny: in the house, Monet’s collection of Japanese prints, including many by the 19th-century master Katsushika Hokusai, line the hallway, yellow dining room and staircase.

Following Monet’s death from lung cancer in 1926, his son Michel inherited Giverny and his stepdaughter Blanche looked after the property. Still, after the Second World War, it fell into a state of neglect.

After Michel died in 1960, the estate was passed to the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, and in 1977 Gérald van der Kemp was appointed curator. With generous financial support from a group of American and French donors, as well as advice from people who had visited during Monet’s lifetime, Van der Kemp oversaw the restoration of the garden.

By then, the lily pond had silted over, so a new water source was found and the Japanese bridge was rebuilt. Using Monet’s paintings as the only guide to the original garden, roses and irises were replanted in the Clos Normand flowerbeds, while interiors were repaired and the famous chrome-yellow dining room repainted.

Today, if one stands in this bright room, looking out across the Clos Normand, one can almost hear the hum of Monet’s voice with his family and friends, such as Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Guy de Maupassant, as they exchange ideas over a long lunch.

Credit: StefanoVenturi

Today, much of Giverny’s charm lies in its original spirit—still palpable—as a family garden. It is easy to imagine children chasing each other along the pebble paths, playing with kittens beneath the rose trellises, or heading off with nets to try their luck with fish in the pond across the lane. But there is more to this story, for this exceptional garden brings into focus an era of transition in painting as well as in garden design.

The garden at Giverny became a mecca for both garden and art lovers for many years. To this day, it remains a destination for artists and gardeners looking for inspiration in its masses of iris and brilliant poppies in spring and in the ongoing dance of pink cosmos, purple autumn asters and golden helianthus.

The garden at Giverny is more than an artist’s statement: it marks a time of significant cultural change and remains a living record of Claude Monet’s vision.

Banner credit: Studio-Annika

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