The Fondation Claude Monet is a nonprofit that manages the house and gardens of Claude Monet 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 When the owner of the Villa Saint-Louis in Poissy where Claude Monet had lived since 17 December 1881 threatened to take him to court over unpaid rent, Monet was able to obtain a stay of execution before he would be evicted on the 15 April 1883.Mathieu, pp. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 156, 157Stuckey, Claude Monet: 1840-1926, pp. 209, 220, 223, 224, 234-236, 246, 247, 257 As a result, Monet began looking for an affordable house to rent close to Paris to keep in contact with the dealers and the art scene but sufficiently far enough away from its rivalries and gossip, particularly because he was living with a married woman, Alice Hoschedé. He wanted a house large enough to accommodate his extended Monet-Hoschedé family of 10; consisting of himself, his 5 and 15 year old sons as well as Alice and her six children ranging in age from 5 to 19. As he wanted to live in Normandy and somewhere downstream from Poissy and close to enough to a boarding school which Michel Monet and Jean-Pierre Hoschedé could attend.
On 5 April he set off on another house hunting trip by taking the Gisors to Pacy-sur-Eure railway line that stopped along the Epte river at every village between Vernon and Gasny.Wullschläger, pp. 246-250 From his carriage he discovered Giverny, a small village of 279 inhabitants. Surrounded by small farms, it was home to a blacksmith, three mills, a school and had a railway station. It was also across the Seine from the town of Vernon, which offers a school which the older children could attend. Finally, he came across a vacant long two-storey slate-roofed farmhouse called “Le Pressoir” (the cider press) with pink rendered walls and grey shutters. It featured a cellar, four rooms on the ground floor, four rooms on the first floor, two rooms in the Mansard roof, which also had an attic To the west of the main house was a small building which featured its own kitchen, storage store and a stable. These stood on a section of land, bordered by at the rear of the house by the village's main street, the Grand Rue or Rue du Village (now rue Claude Monet). The front of the house faced south onto a garden and an orchard with apple and pear trees, which extended for as far as the east–west running street of Chemin du Roy, on the other side of which ran a railway line.Houston, Vasseur, Wolfe, Stuckey; pp. 48, 50 During Monet's lifetime four trains ran along the line on all days except Sunday. Extending from each end of the main house was a stone wall that enclosed the entire property, which included within its boundaries a barn on the western side, as well as a woodshed and the outhouse on the eastern side.
Its owner, farmer and winegrower Louis-Joseph Singeot, unaware of his future tenant's history of missing rent payments agreed to rent it and Monet with his two children in tow moved in on 29 April 1883. Alice and her children joined them the next day. The rental agreement was signed on 3 May with Monet obtaining an advance of 5,000 francs from Durand-Ruel to pay the initial rental payment.
In their first year in residence the couple planted the garden, painted the house shutters green, painted the dining room in two shades of yellow, and renovated the kitchen. During their early years in residence Monet had the pines which bordered a central alley through the property cut down, keeping only the two yews closest to the house to please Alice. He also constructed a boathouse on an island in the Seine, a kilometre from the house. Over that summer he explored the surrounding area by boat.
In December 1885 Monet converted the west barn into a studio by installing a wooden floor and a large window and connected it via a covered staircase to the house. It is believed that Monet created his first paintings of his garden in 1888.In Monet’s Garden: Artists and the Lure of Giverny, pp. 57, 58 At the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris Monet is believed to have seen a display of hybrid water lilies developed from reddish flowers and met their creator, the horticulturist Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac.
Purchases Le Pressoir In May 1890 Singeot decided to put the property up for sale. Monet jumped at the opportunity and wrote to dealer Paul Durand-Ruel requesting an advance, “I must ask you for a significant amount of money, being on the cusp of purchasing the house where I live or having to leave Giverny, the loss of which I would feel keenly, certain of never again finding such a setting nor such a beautiful area.” Why Monet needed Durand-Ruel financial assistance is unknown as since 1886, when Durand-Ruel had unlocked the American market for him, Monet had enjoyed growing wealth. In 1889, the sale of just one of his paintings – ‘The Seine at Vétheuil’ – had earned Monet 7,900 francs, while the "15 Haystacks" exhibition of 4 May 1891 had been profitable, with fellow artist Pissarro reporting, “Soon after opening, everything had sold for three to four thousand each!”
The sale was finalized on 17 November 1890 in the offices of Maître Grimpard, a notary in Vernon. The purchase price of 20,000 francs was payable in four instalments on 1 November each year from 1891 onwards. The deed of sale described the property as having “a single painting studio in the wing, on the western end of the main house.” On 7 March 1891 the first detailed description of Monet's garden in given in an article by Mirbeau entitled "Claude Monet" in the magazine L'Art dans les deux mondes.
In June 1891 Monet took advice from a Japanese gardener.Wullschläger, p. 313 This is believed to have been Wasuke Hata (1865–1928) who had come to France to assist with the creation of the Japanese pavilion at the Exposition Universelle of 1889.Houston, Vasseur, Wolfe, Stuckey; p. 61 He then remained in France for the rest of his life creating Japanese gardens for Robert de Montesquiou, Hugues Krafft as well as Edmond James de Rothschild at Boulogne-sur-Seine. In 1892 the first gardener was hired by Monet, which by 1904 had increased to six full time gardeners under the leadership of Felix Breuil.Wullschläger, pp. 313, 365, 407 Breuil had been recruited with the assistance of Octave Mirbeau, as he was the son of the gardener who worked for Mirbeau's father. One gardener working from a small boat was responsible for cleaning the surface of the pond as well as dusting and washing the water lilies. Monet cultivated approximately 70 species, spending large amounts of money on the garden, even going as far as paying for the public road separating the two gardens to be tar sealed to reduce the dust on the lilies.Wullschläger, p. 366
By early September 1892 work was underway on the construction of new glasshouse on the property. It featured a heating system and Monet, together with his wife and stepdaughters, spent its first night of operation checking that it was working correctly in order to protect the gloxinias he was growing.
Purchases land for the water garden The beginning of 1893 witnessed an increase in Monet's interest in gardening, a passion he shared with his painter friend and great patron, Gustave Caillebotte. Thus, he visited Mr. Varenne, director of the Jardin des Plantes (botanical garden) in Rouen.Wildenstein 1996, pp. 288-290 He also purchased many of his plants from the gardeners of Rouen.Wildenstein 1996, pp. 291-308 Regarding gardening, Monet declared: "What is there to say about me? What can there be to say, I ask you, about a man who is interested in nothing in the world but his painting - and also his garden and his flowers.Wildenstein 1996, p. 304
On 5 February 1893, ten years after his arrival at Giverny, Monet bought the piece of land opposite his property on the other side of the railway line, with plans to create a water garden on it. The land was partly marshy and crossed by a small brook, the Ru, a diversion of the Epte, a tributary of the Seine River. Its location led Georges Clemenceau to say "and what's more, he has the train at home!"
On 17 March 1893 Monet asked the Eure district commissioner for permission to have a pond that he had dug filled by diverting water from the adjacent Ru; when full, the pond would irrigate his property. He also wished to construct two wooden bridges over the Ru to allow access to property on the other side that he had rented. A number of Givernois opposed his plan, claiming that his flowers would poison the stream, while civil engineers from the authorities following an inspection of the site also raised a number of concerns. This upset Monet, who by 20 March was considering abandoning the project, exclaiming, "..shit on the Giverny natives, the engineers," and had thoughts of throwing the lily plants in the river. But he recovered his enthusiasm and submitted a revised request on 24 March. On 19 April the municipality turned it down. Monet appealed the decision by applying to the Prefect of the Eure, explaining in a letter dated 17 July 1893 that the work was to “cultivate aquatic plants … for the pleasure of the eyes and in order to have subjects to paint.”Wullschläger, pp. 327 On 27 July 1893 the Prefect approved Monet's application.
By October the water garden was well underway, with Julie Manet on a visit with her mother recording the existence of an “ornamental lake across which is a green bridge which looks rather Japanese.” Later to be known as the Japanese bridge, it was built by a local craftsman.
Following the wedding of his son Jean and Blanche in 1897, Monet began the construction of a building on the northwest end of the Clos Normand. Completed sometime prior to August 1898, this had a darkroom, garage and gardener's storage area on the ground floor. The first floor housed a new studio, with a large northern facing window overlooking the street and a glassed-in balcony on the south side facing the garden. On the second floor were two apartments for visiting family members.Wullschläger, p. 337 The creation of this new studio allowed Monet to convert the existing studio into a smoking lounge, though he tended to use the new studio to only finish paintings and as a showroom for those wishing to purchase artworks directly from him.
On 10 May 1901 Monet spent 1,200 francs purchasing more land on the south bank of the Ru to allow expansion of the water garden. Following a visit during the summer, the art critic Arsène Alexandre described the garden in an article published on 9 August in Le Figaro, "When the sunlight plays upon the water, it resembles - damascened as it is with the water lilies' great round leaves and encrusted with the precious stones of their flowers - the masterwork of a goldsmith who has melded alloys of the most magical metals."