AN APPRECIATION: Claude Monet
(Part III The Giverny Years)

  One day in April 1883, Monet was riding on a train when he looked out the window and noticed a village that he found attractive. It was Giverny, a little village in the Seine valley in Normandy. It was to be centerstage for the rest of Monet's life.

At first, Monet, Alice Hoschede and their children moved into rented quarters in the nearby village of Vernon. However, the family soon moved to a house in Giverny on two acres of property. It was owned by a local winemaker and was called Le Pressoir (the cider Press). In addition to a large house, it had a barn that could be transformed into a studio and was close to a number of scenic locations, including the Seine, that could serve as subjects for paintings. (See our profile of Monet's house and gardens at Giverny).

Around this time, Monet shifted his artistic approach. In the recent past, he had traveled around France painting unique pictures of a variety of different subjects that caught his eye. Now, he focused on creating series of paintings of the same subject. The subjects were essentially irrelevant, just a platform through which he could study the effects of different atmospheric conditions and different lighting. Some of the subjects for these series included Rouen Cathedral, haystacks, and poplar trees.

One reason that Monet was able to make this change in approach was that he was beginning to find commercial success. Art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel was purchasing Monet's paintings on a regular basis. In addition, he had found a market for Monet's work in the United States.  The prices Monet's paintings could command grew accordingly. As a result, Monet no longer had to act as his own salesman. Nor did he have to produce a large quantity of canvases for sale. Instead, he now had the time to concentrate and fully explore ideas.
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In addition to exhibiting at the Durand-Ruel Gallerie, in the 1880s, Monet began exhibiting at Georges Petit's new gallery. Perhaps the most significant of these exhibitions was a joint exhibition of the works of Monet and the sculptor Auguste Rodin in 1889. Exhibiting as an equal with an artist the stature of Rodin confirmed that Monet had arrived.

Monet's fame enabled him to head a subscription drive to purchase Edouard Manet's “Olympia” for the French nation. While Monet and Manet had little in common and sometimes quarreled fiercely, they admired each others work.  Monet's early work was clearly influenced by Manet and Manet's later, more Impressionistic, work reflects the influence of Monet. Monet's role in the purchase of “Olympia” can be seen as a tribute to his friend and hero who had passed away in 1884.

By 1890, Monet was in a financial position that enabled him to purchase the house at Giverny. Three years later, he purchased an adjoining parcel in order to divert the Ru River and create a pond. This was followed in 1901 by the purchase of an additional parcel in order to enlarge the pond.
These purchases were opposed by local farmers who feared that this outsider would pollute the river. However, Monet had become the village's most famous inhabitant and he was granted the required permits.

Monet had long-loved gardening and he created a large one at Giverny. Indeed, at one point, he had seven gardeners to work his garden. When he was in Giverny, he would survey the garden each day and leave instructions for the gardeners. Inspired by his interest in Japanese art and by exhibits that he had seen at the Universal Exposition of 1889, Monet planted exotic water lilies in his pond and constructed a Japanese-style foot bridge across it.

At first, the garden was just for his personal pleasure. However, Monet eventually saw the possibilities it presented for painting. Over time, his attention gradually shifted from the formal flower garden to the pond and then to the water lilies and reflections in the pond. His paintings became more and more abstract.

By the late 1880s, an artist colony had sprung up in Giverny attracted by Monet's presence. For the most part, Monet tolerated these artists and did little to encourage them.  He did not conduct classes or give instruction. One of the artists, Theordore Earl Butler, however, married Monet's step-daughter Suzanne in 1892.

A few days before Suzanne's marriage, Monet had married her mother Alice.  They had lived together since the late 1870s and now the death of her estranged husband Ernst enabled the couple to marry.  Whereas Monet's first wife Camille appears frequently in Monet's paintings, Alice appears in relatively few. Indeed, Suzanne appears in many more.

In general, there are relatively few figures in Monet's later paintings. Reportedly, this was in part due to Alice's threat to leave him if Monet hired any professional models.

Alice died in 1911. Her daughter, the painter Blanche Hoschede, had married Monet's eldest son Jean and they visited Monet frequently from their home in nearby Rouen. When Jean died in 1914, Blanche moved to Giverny and took care of Monet and the house.

Monet too was having health problems. Like his Impressionist colleagues Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt, Monet was having problems with his vision. In 1912, a specialist detected cataracts but they were not ready to be operated upon. Instead, the doctor prescribed a treatment to retard the growth of the cataracts.

Giverny was not involved in the fighting during the First World War. However, Monet painted a series of paintings of weeping willows as a homage to the fallen French soldiers.

Encouraged by his friend Georges Clemenceau, during this time, Monet also began work on a series of water lily paintings known as the Decorations. For some time, Monet had been thinking of painting a series of monumental canvases of water lilies. To enable him to do this, Monet had a large studio constructed at Giverny (the third studio he had built om the property). In it he installed rolling easels big enough to hold canvases six feet tall by twelve feet wide. Clearly, such canvases precluded painting the Decorations en plein air by the side of the pond. Therefore, in 1916, the 75-year-old artist began the series working from studies and from memory.

Monet intended to bequeath the best paintings in this series to France. In April 1922, it was agreed that these paintings would be installed in two oval-shaped rooms in the Orangerie of the Tuileries in Paris. The artist, who was still working on the paintings, took an active role in the discussions about how they would be exhibited.

The next year, however, Monet had two cataract operations. While the operations improved his ability to see, they distorted his color perception. This made it difficult for him to work as he had to look at the paint tubes to be sure what color he was applying. Eventually, special order glasses helped correct this issue.

In the Spring of 1926, Monet became ill with lung cancer. He became terribly emaciated but continued to try and work. With Clemenceau present, Monet passed away on December 5 and was buried in the churchyard at Giverny.

See our profiles of these other Impressionists and members of  their circle.

Frederic Bazille
Eugene Boudin
Marie Bracquemond
Gustave Caillebotte
Mary Cassatt
Paul Cezanne
​Edgar Degas
​Henri Fantin-Latour
​Eva Gonzales
Paul Gauguin
Armand Guillaumin​
Edouard Manet
​Berthe Morisot
​Camille Pissarro
Pierre Auguste Renoir
Alfred Sisley
​​Suzanne Valadon
​Victor Vignon
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Art reviews and articles index

Monet's best known work from the Giverny period was a series of paintings of water-lilies and reflections in water known as the Decorations.  He bequeathed part of the series to France and they are in the Orangerie in Paris.  However, other paintings from the series are elsewhere Including the Museum of Modern Art  in New York (above).

Monet also did several other well-known series during this period including paintings of haystacks, poplar trees and of Rouen Cathedral (below) 

A landmark feature of Monet's garden at Giverny is the Japanese-inspired foot bridge, which features in many of Monet's paintings. (above).

During the Giverny years Monet occasionally returned to subjects that he had explored earlier in his career.  Above is a painting from the 1880s of Monet's stepdaughter Suzanne in a pose and seen from an angle that Monet had used with his first wife Camille in the 1870s.

Below:  Monet returned to the Seine for inspiration throughout his career.    

Even while living at Giverny, Monet continued to travel, painting series of works in London (above) and in Venice (below).

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Artist appreciation - Claude Monet (Part III The Giverny Years)