Monet's Gardens in Giverny

During our trip to France, we visited Monet's Gardens in Giverny.  It was a perfect time of year- just take a look at these gardens.

 

Monet employed 7 gardeners to take care of his grounds.

 

After Monet’s death in 1926, the garden slowly disintegrated. His surviving son, Michel, who died in 1966, left both the property and the art collection to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The collection went to the Musée Marmottan in Paris and a first curator attempted to save what remained of the house and garden.
Giverny’s renaissance began with the arrival of former Versailles chief curator Gerald Van der Kemp and his American wife Florence, in 1976. Having raised substantial sums for the restoration of Versailles, they turned their attention to Monet’s heritage, and the house and garden were saved by millions of dollars from generous American donors.  ( read more about this store at the link below)

 Rose bushes shaped into umbrellas

 

 

Monet's home

 

excerpt from Francetoday.com

Painting was put on hold while he dug, seeded, weeded and hoed, doing a lot of the work himself—at Giverny he rose at dawn and usually was in bed no later than 9 pm. His eight children—his two sons by his first wife Camille and his second wife Alice’s four daughters and two sons from a previous marriage—were in charge of the evening watering.

“Monet was his own head gardener,” Gall declares. “He was obsessed by the beauty of flowers and the composition of his garden, he was an inventor and a researcher. He had a library of horticultural books, periodicals and plant dictionaries in French, English and German, so he could keep permanently informed of new plants that could represent a color or an atmosphere. He planned the garden like motifs for his pictures and his paintings became the inspiration to continue the garden.” 

 Monet's personality was strong and complex.  It is said that when he couldn't create a beautiful painting, that he would go to bed for 2 days. The household knew to be quiet.  He also insisted that the family eat together everyday at exactly 11:30 am.  One of his youngest daughters always had to leave school quickly at lunch just to make it home on time or else she was strongly reprimanded.

 

 

Monet was particularly proud of his tree peonies.

 

 

 

Monet's painting of this bridge

 

To read the entire history of the gardens and how they were developed by Monet read the following article-

http://www.francetoday.com/articles/2011/04/24/how-monet-s-garden-grew.html