4.9/5
Giverny, Monet's home from 1883 until his death in 1926, is two gardens split by a road: the flower beds of the Clos Normand by the long pink house, and the water garden with its green Japanese bridge. Each view below is matched to the painting it became and the museum that has it, and the practical side of a visit comes at the end.
From a rented farmhouse to a water garden
Monet spotted Giverny from a train in early April 1883, when the village had 279 inhabitants, and moved into a rented farmhouse there on April 29. He bought it on November 17, 1890, for 20,000 francs. In February 1893 he added a marshy plot across the railway line and diverted the Ru, a small branch of the Epte, to fill a pond. The point, he told the prefect that July, was “for the pleasure of the eyes and in order to have subjects to paint.”
Gardens were his subject long before that: Women in the Garden, from 1866–1867, and the 1867 Garden at Sainte-Adresse, then a garden scene from Vétheuil, the village he lived in from 1878–1881. Browse Monet's paintings side by side and the Giverny pictures stand apart, because this was a garden built to be painted.
Monet's garden at Giverny, painting by painting
| Garden view | Painting | Date | Where it hangs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iris beds, Clos Normand | The Artist's Garden at Giverny | 1900 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
| Japanese bridge | Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies | 1899 | The Met, New York |
| Japanese bridge | The Water-Lily Pond | 1899 | National Gallery, London |
| Pond surface | Water Lilies | 1919 | The Met, New York |
| Whole pond, as murals | Water Lilies, 8 compositions | On view since 1927 | Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris |
| Grainstack fields nearby | Meules | 1890 | Museum Barberini, Potsdam (on loan) |
The iris beds of the Clos Normand
When Monet arrived, the Clos Normand was a 1-hectare orchard and kitchen garden. He cut down the spruces on the central path (after arguments with Alice) and put up the metal arches that still stand; roses and nasturtiums line it now. In The Artist's Garden at Giverny (1900), purple and pink irises run diagonally under trees, with the house glimpsed behind. Look for the dappled light changing their color patch by patch.
The green bridge
The bridge was up by October 1893, when Julie Manet described “a green bridge which looks rather Japanese.” Monet took the shape from his Japanese prints but painted it green instead of the red used in Japan. In December 1900 he showed 12 bridge paintings at Durand-Ruel's gallery in Paris. One of the 1899 versions hangs in Room 46 in London, and it's more closed in than the real pond ever was: photographs from the time show a more open view than the one he painted.
Looking straight down at the pond
One gardener worked the pond from a small boat, cleaning the surface and even washing the lilies, and Monet paid to have the road between his gardens tarred to keep dust off them. Stand at the edge, look down, and you get the 1919 Water Lilies at the Met: no bank, no horizon, the sky only a lavender reflection between the pads.
Two rooms of water in Paris
The Orangerie's oval rooms hold 8 huge water lily compositions, each 6.5 feet (1.97 m) high, about 200 square meters (2,153 sq ft) of paint wrapped around you like water with no horizon and no shore. Monet offered the first panels to the state on November 12, 1918, the day after the Armistice, and the rooms opened in 1927, after his death.
What plants are in Monet's garden?
The Clos Normand has roses and nasturtiums on the central path, beds of daffodils, tulips, narcissi, irises, Oriental poppies and peonies, and Japanese cherry and apricot trees. The water garden has water lilies framed by bamboo, ginkgo biloba, maples, Japanese tree peonies, lilies and weeping willows. Monet was offhand about stocking the pond: “I got a catalogue and simply chose at random.”
Where the originals ended up
The canvases in his studio-salon are reproductions, some 60 of them, hung to recreate the room's old atmosphere. For the real thing, start in Paris: Michel Monet's 1966 bequest made the Musée Marmottan Monet the largest Monet collection anywhere, and the 1872 canvas that named Impressionism hangs there. The grainstacks he painted just outside his door fetch the most at auction; one from 1890 sold for $110.7 million in 2019.
Planning the trip
| Season | Daily, April 1–November 1 |
|---|---|
| Hours | 10am–6pm, last entry 5:30pm |
| Tickets | €13 adults; €7 ages 7–17 and students; free under 7 |
| From Paris | Train from Gare Saint-Lazare to Vernon-Giverny, then the shuttle (€5 one way) or a rented bike |
| Allow | 1½–2 hours |
Book your entry online. The site drew 750,000 visitors in 2023, and once the online quota sells out, expect long waits at the gate. E-tickets aren't refundable. Any exit is final, so see both gardens before you leave; an underpass takes you under the road to the water garden. The house displays 211 of Monet's Japanese prints, and the dining room's yellow walls are hung with them. Leave the sketchbook at home: painting and drawing aren't allowed. Monet's grave is in the Giverny church cemetery, and the ticket desk sells an adult combined ticket with the Marmottan for €27.
A pond for your own wall
Giverny itself hangs reproductions to bring Monet's studio back to life, so there's good precedent for living with one. If one of these garden views belongs in your home, the Monet canvases painted by hand in the collection include the water lilies and the early gardens. For the rest of the museum canon, start with the paintings people ask for most.
Sources
- Claude Monet's House and Gardens, Giverny: useful information
- Claude Monet's House and Gardens: the Clos Normand
- Claude Monet's House and Gardens: the water garden
- Claude Monet's House and Gardens: the house
- National Gallery, London: The Water-Lily Pond
- Musée de l'Orangerie: history of the Water Lilies cycle
- Sotheby's: Monet's Meules sells for $110.7 million
