Claude Monet's garden at Giverny for your next Stay in Paris ! The Two Gardens There are two parts in Monet's garden: a flower garden called Clos Normand in front of the house and a Japanese inspired water garden on the other side of the road. The two parts of Monet's garden contrast and complement one another. Claude Monet's Home and Garden in Giverny in Spring - Giverny Photo by Ariane Cauderlie r The Clos Normand When Monet and his family settled in Giverny in 1883 the piece of land sloping gently down from the house to the road was planted with an orchard and enclosed by high stone walls. A central alley bordered with pines separated it into two parts. Monet had the pines cut down, keeping only the two yews closest to the house to please Alice. From this Clos Normand of about one hectare, Monet made a garden full of perspectives, symmetries and colours. The land is divided into flowerbeds where flower clumps of different heights create volume.

Fruit trees or ornamental trees dominate the climbing roses, the long -stemmed hollyhocks and the coloured banks of annuals. Monet mixed the simplest flowers (daisies and poppies) with the most rare varieties. The central alley is covered over by iron arches on which climbing roses grow. Other rose trees cover the balustrade along the house. At the end of the summer nasturtiums invade the soil in the central alley. Claude Monet did not like organized nor constrained gardens. He married flowers according to their colours and left them to grow rather freely. With the passing years he developed a passion for botany, exchanging plants with his friends Clemenceau and Caillebotte. Always on the look-out for rare varieties, he bought young plants at great expense. "All my money goes into my garden," he said.

But also: "I am in raptures." Giverny Claude Monet's Garden Main Alley late summer - Photo Ariane Cauderlier Claude Monet Water Lily Pond in Giverny - Photo Ariane Cauderlier The water garden In 1893, ten years after his arrival at Giverny, Monet bought the piece of land neighbouring his property on the other side of the railway. It was crossed by a small brook, the Ru, which is a diversion of the Epte, a tributary of the Seine River. With the support of the prefecture, Monet had the first small pond dug ; even though his peasant neighbours were opposed. They were afraid that his strange plants would poison the water. Later on the pond would be enlarged to its present day size. The water garden is full of asymmetries and curves. It is inspired by the Japanese gardens that Monet knew from the prints he collected avidly. In this water garden you will find the famous Japanese bridge covered with wisterias, other smaller bridges, weeping willows, a bamboo wood and above all the famous nympheas which bloom all summer long.

The pond and the surrounding vegetation form an enclosure separated from the surrounding countryside. Never before had a painter so shaped his subjects in nature before painting them. And so he created his works twice. Monet would find his inspiration in this water garden for more than twenty years. After the Japanese bridge series, he would devote himself to the giant decorations of the Orangerie. Always looking for mist and transparencies, Monet would dedicate himself less to flowers than to reflections in water, a kind of inverted world transfigured by the liquid element. Claude Monet Water Garden in Giverny, Autumn Reflections - Photo Ariane Cauderlier Understanding Monet's Garden at Giverny Hey! Psst! Want free samples? Click here Home > Understanding Monet's Garden at Giverny Understanding Monet's Garden at Giverny Giverny is a small town in Normandy, in northwestern France where Claude Monet spent the last years of his life. His garden is open for visits. The head of this garden, Gilbert Vah�, provided an interview to To get the original French interview, go here.

CONTENTS (Click on blue questions to go directly to that part of the interview.) How long have you been here at the Giverny garden? Is the garden that we can see currently more or less the same as the one which Claude Monet had created? It is in the same spirit. We take the same elements. We do as Claude Monet did in his time, that is to say that there is very little mechanization, everything is manual, pesticides are limited and the growing techniques are the same. The plants differ slightly because there is some evolution in this area. When we are able to find the (original ones), we plant them in the garden of Monet. Otherwise, we are led to replace them with modern hybrids, (which are) much more hardy, much stronger, and more beautiful, too. How is it composed, this garden? How did he design it? He designed it little by little. This is not very well known, but to me, the turning point was Bordighera. In 1883, Monet rents Giverny � he only bought it in 1890 � and he sets up house with Alice Hosched�.

It was she who wanted to fix up the place in order to be able to accommodate the whole family. She sent Monet with Renoir to paint in the South of France, to Bordighera. I think this was a turning point in the life of Monet. In the exchange of correspondence on his first visit to the South, we see that he wanted to return north, he had enough of it, he wasn't able to capture the colors of the South. The light is completely different from that of Normandy and he couldn't succeed in rendering it. He wanted to return home, but Alice Hosched� wrote to him: �No, no, stay there.� Of course, she preferred to be alone to fix up Giverny. So he stayed. And his art dealer, Durand-Ruel, urged him to stay also, to produce new paintings, and he suggested to him, �Check with Renoir, try to visit the garden of the ambassador of France in Italy in Bordighera, because there, there will undoubtedly be beautiful subjects for paintings.� They are invited by the ambassador and they visit that garden. From that moment on, something clicked, because Monet writes to Alice and to Durand-Ruel: �Ah!

It has happened. It�s wonderful. Now, I am in the right place. I am able to capture color. I understand. This garden I visited is magnificent and so natural and yet, everything was planted.� He is astonished that they are slices of nature, but planted. And he says to Durand-Ruel: �I am returning north with Renoir, but in a few months, I will go back down again, because I have ideas.� And he adds in his post-script: �Above all, don�t say anything to Renoir.� He returned to Giverny and he saw an untouched property: one hectare of land, two cider-apple trees with an orchard, and he began to imagine what his garden could be. To me that was the "ah-ha" moment. When you see the works he painted in Bordighera, you understand the idea he had for his garden at Giverny. Did he create this garden all by himself? Yes. In the beginning, when he arrived at Giverny, he had very few means. He used what he had, that is to say his two sons, plus the children of his second wife, to garden.

Some liked it, but others did not like that! Claude Monet was a painter, he was not a horticulturist. How did he proceed to get the various seeds? He had a passion for flowers. And when you have a passion, you surround yourself with friends who have the same (passion), both professionals and painters. For example, he saw a lot of Caillebotte, who had a very big garden with several gardeners. He saw the most important figures in the trade: Truffaut, Vilmorin. And they got together all the time. In 1922, there was the great international contest on irises. Monet gave 500 gold francs for a prize. He used his gardeners to create new plants. Because we always go beyond our passion. We begin by planting what we have, what friends give us. Then, we want also to offer something special, so we create by observation, by hybridization. And we offer what we have created. Monet had created a dahlia which he called La Digoinaise from a Mignon dahlia which is the star of Digoin.

He created varieties of irises, he created a poppy he called Moneti. He is believed to have created roses, but for this I do not have any written document, I only have the words of the gardeners of the time. But I have not found anything on the varieties of roses he is said to have created. We are going to go into the second part of the garden, the one where there is, in particular, the Japanese bridge. How was the terrain at the time when Monet arrived? First of all, there was a lane � not the current road � with a railroad track, slightly elevated. And on the other side of the track, it was a swamp, that is to say a meadow, a grazing area. Monet had the idea to buy a piece of land adjacent to his property and to create a pond there. And to create that pond, he was forced to ask for special authorizations, which we would not be able to obtain today. But friends like Clemenceau and others helped him. He paid a lot for the authorization to divert this brook that fed one or two mills a bit farther down, after which he dug his pond. He dug it in several stages.

He first dug a small (pond) and he found that it was not big enough for his painting studies. He extended it, I believe, twice. Then he wanted to have exotic water lilies, bulbous water lilies, thus blue water lilies, among others. They have, as a distinctive feature, a flower that sits a bit above the surface of the water. And they have extraordinary colors, the most beautiful colors for water lilies. But it is necessary for them to have warm water. In Monet�s time, it was the first hybrids of Latour-Mariac which could grow in cold water, thus in Monet�s garden. But the bulbous water lilies came among others from Japan and from much warmer countries. So he had created a small pond within the pond with a small wall to warm the water and to have these bulbous water lilies. Since he did not succeed, he got rid of this pond within the pond. Could the population of the area visit this garden or was it closed? In the beginning, he was alone, but, when he began to be known, he sold his paintings in the United States.

The young American painters discovered Monet�s style and the special light of Normandy, the frameworks, the viewpoints. And they showed up in large numbers. In the beginning, there were not many of them, he received them, they worked together. But in the end, there were so many of them that it became a little � pardon the expression � a little chaotic! In addition, he had many daughters with his second wife. He did not like to see them in this environment, artistic but rather dissolute. So he had closed his door. He received only those who were affiliated. Okay, Butler married a Hosched�, so some American painters courted Monet�s daughters. Those were part of the family, but the others were not. He sent them to his vegetable garden, that is to say to what is still called the blue house, in the middle of the village. All the sections of perennials that he grew in his garden, he planted them in his vegetable garden. And when an artist wanted to come and paint, he told him: "Oh, it is just as beautiful at the blue house," and he sent him to the vegetable garden. In this garden, there is the famed Japanese bridge.

Do you know what appealed so much to Monet about Japan? We must place Monet in his own time. It is the time when Japan opened its commercial markets. Previously, that country was closed. Then it underwent its revolution : some samurais were for tradition; the emperor, for his part, was facing a blockade and wanted to open his country. In the end, both sides killed one another and the emperor and the samurais who supported him had the upper hand. The movie, The Last Samurai depicts the atmosphere of that era. Japan opening to the West, that worked to the benefit of the young painters who painted differently, the impressionists. At the time, the hyperrealists, who spent four hundred hours on a painting, found it very strange that a young (painter) who spent four or five hours on a painting could hope to sell it for the same price as theirs! That could not do! The hyperrealists said: �We, that is what we do, actually, it is the first draft of our painting. They, they have paintings (that are) not finished.� So they refused them.

When the impressionists saw Japanese art, and particularly Japanese prints � Monet and other impressionists collected them, by the way � they found in that art the proof that what they claimed was true. For example, that it is from the simplicity, from elements (that are) completely refined that we can draw the best aesthetics. In addition, they found ideas for subjects to which they were not accustomed. They re-used those subjects. There are many subjects on water, on reflection. In some prints, we see a person in profile in the foreground and the vanishing point is in the reflection, for example in a container of water! The notion of movement, simplified, they also found it in the prints. The impressionists re-used those print subjects, and each time we look at a print, we think we know it by heart, but we rediscover a small detail. Because Japanese art, it is beauty in indispensable elements. There is nothing superfluous. Here (in the West), we put in a lot of things and we seek beauty in this profusion of colors and shapes. In Japan, it is the opposite. This is why we have difficulty understanding one another. They have reproduced a Monet garden in Japan.

And I did not understand why they did not follow what we had established. Every time I went there, I said: �Why, that�s not right! This is not what we decided�!" And they didn't understand until the day when they came to work here, in France, with us. Then they went back home. When I returned there later, everything had changed. It was really like here (in France). We sometimes have difficulty understanding each other because we are completely different. In the pond of that second garden, there are water lilies, the famous �nympheas� which inspired Monet. What appealed so much to him about those water lilies? At the World�s Fair of 1889, Latour-Mariac presented the first hybrid of a hardy, colored water lilly. Water lilies, little yellow flowers, and white water lilies grew in the Seine. But colored water lilies, there were none. So it was Latour-Mariac who was the first to succeed in creating a hybrid and obtaining a flower. Then (came) other colors, yellow and others. Monet got in touch with Latour-Mariac to buy aquatic plants.

And he used them, at first, I think, as a surface marker (in paintings). Because the white water lily had almost no reflection. It floats on the water. On the other hand, there was the reflection of the trees and the environment in the water. The "breaking point" is the white water lily. So it is a matter of creating a vanishing point and a horizontal line between the subject and the reflection. That was the starting point. Afterwards, he went further. He wanted to capture the movement and the colors under water. The movement of the stems of the water lilies that bend proves that there is movement under water, even if there is none above ground. So it is his quest for perfection, his desire to always go further. That is to say that, when he saw plants and when he bought them, he already intended to paint them. Yes, he intended to paint them. He painted what he saw. Another thing: this garden is very well oriented. It is oriented with the back facing north, the front facing south, with a big valley to the east, the valley of the Seine and the valley of the Epte, and to the west, the valley of the Seine.

So the most beautiful colors of the atmosphere are in the morning, early, or late in the evening, but above all in the morning, very early, because it is clear in the valley and then we have pink effects. And the spectrum changes. At noon, it is overwhelmingly yellow and red. Whereas in the morning, it is pink, very pastel, very beautiful. Monet rose very early in the morning to capture those colors. And his water garden was designed to have one pool in the sun and one pool in the shade and the Japanese bridge between the two, in the narrowing. Which makes it so that at sunrise the rays passed under the Japanese bridge � by the way, that is why he installed a Japanese bridge, this arched bridge. The rays of the sun pass beneath it and light up the shaded area with the water lilies in the shade, creating a shade-and-light effect. And all that, it was observation and studies to reproduce in his paintings. This is astounding! This is normal, it was his job, it was his passion. I am convinced that he discovered, while painting, some lighting effects. For example, we are at the level of the Seine. So at certain times, water evaporates.

And there is a phenomenon that we call iridescence. It is very ephemeral. It lasts ten minutes at the most. And it doesn't happen all of the time. It depends on the moisture content of the atmosphere and the radiation of the sun. And that creates an ambiance� for example, everything is pink. The air is pink and we have the impression that it is our eyes that are deceiving us. The first time that I observed this phenomenon, I asked one of my fellow gardeners: "Do I have a problem? Do you see everything pink?" And he told me: "Yes, yes, everything is pink, yes." So everything was pink, but that does not last very long. How long have you been here at the Giverny garden? It has been thirty years now. We began the restoration in 1976 and we opened (the garden) to the public in 1980. It was, actually the goodwill of Mr. Van der Kemp, who was the curator. Previously, he had been curator at the chateau of Versailles, where he retired.

And then, for pleasure, being an academician and since the property belonged to the Academy of Fine Arts, he took charge of it to restore it. But he did not expect, and neither did I, to see so many visitors. Simply, Mr. Van de Kemp was a little like Monet: he was a painter and a lover of flowers and nature. So it was somewhat the same spirit as Monet. And we worked along those lines. Additionally, we had projects, ideas for related activities in order to pay the people who worked on the site, since we had anticipated only seven thousand visitors. In 1980, we opened and we received seventy thousand persons the first year! And we had to rethink everything, all that was of a practical nature, restrooms, access. So we put aside the other projects and we focused on improving the site to accommodate all those people. Gilbert Vah�, thank you. French Paintings & Famous French Artists Buy Now from Art.com Renoir Luncheon of the Boating Party French art rose up after European art had initially been dominated after the Middle Ages by the French-led Renaissance which only really reached the rest of the continent as an afterthought.

Germany, Netherlands, Spain and indeed France all made useful contributions to the spread of the later Renaissance periods but at that time all were just following in the footsteps of Italy and attempting to add a little of their own personal style on top. It was perhaps around the 17th century that France started to change from art-follower to art-leader in some movements where it built up an impressive reputation through strings of related French-born painters who were attracting international recognition for their work which was also in a style that was considered highly modern at that time. You will find a good selection of the most influential painters from France since the 17th century but the truth is there is a far longer list of relevant painters who have made a mark, and this website is simply too small to cover each and every significant painter to have come from France since the Middle Ages. Buy Now from Art.com Monet Waterlilies Claude Monet has grown to become perhaps the most loved international artist having gifted the world some incredible works from his French home in Giverny as well as various landscape scenes from across Europe.

His colour selections and eye for the romantic look to a painting have helped him to gain a great name within the arts world and from this has come consistent interest ever since, generation after generation. Camille Pissarro was another notable French impressionist and was devoted to producing a series of stunning French landscape paintings that will probably never fall out of fashion because of their immediate charm that can grab anyone in seconds. Alfred Sisley was an Englishman who also joined in with this passionate art movement and rarely missed his home country after throwing himself entirely into the French way of life. Sisley appreciated the French countryside more than even most of his French friends because it was all new to him. Buy Now from Art.com Paul Ranson Apple Tree with Red Fruit Paul Ranson is perhaps lesser known than some of the main French impressionist artists but he still left an important selection of works which are still popular today, including Apple Tree with Red Fruit that you can see above.

Paul Cezanne was an inspiring French painter who was best remembered for his French still life works of apples and oranges as well as his stylish captures of the French landscape in several different locations across a career which still stands out as highly significant and was also seen as inspiration for other key painters who followed on afterwards. Cezanne’s style was highly original and it is not easy to classify his work into an art movement as much as the likes of Pissarro and Monet. Edgar Degas was a painter who rejected the impressionist label even though it can be applied accurately to many of his paintings, which equally shared the realism style as well. Degas was best known for his paintings of ballet dancers and no other artist has ever covered this topic as well or in such detail. Renoir paintings also tackled various scenes around a Racecourse ground as well and this also produced respected art works. Buy Now from Art.com Claude Monet Artist's Garden at Argenteuil Gustave Caillebotte was a realism artist who, although lesser known than other painters mentioned here, is still a highly significant painter whose career produced many paintings of note.

Caillebotte was living in Paris for several years and here he painted some of his most respected paintings including the rooftops of Paris when littered with snow in the winter months. Buy Now from Art.com Seurat Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte This website is specifically about French paintings rather than artists and one work which must be mentioned was by Eugene Delacroix, himself a highly significant painter who produced some impressive French based paintings with a strong Romanticist feel. Liberty of the People famously captures a classic French moment in history like no other artist has managed and it allowed the painting to sit at the top if this respected artist’s achievements. Buy Now from Art.com Degas Four Ballerinas on the Stage In the modern era, most significant paintings are now owned by the national galleries of major western countries who are unlikely to ever allow them to fall into private hands. With this in mind, it is clear that these major museums and art galleries art fantastic places for normal people to get to see classic original paintings and in many cases now they are actually free to enter.

The Louvre in Paris can reasonably claim to be one of, if not the most, important and impressive galleries in the world today with a fine selection of French paintings plus other key works which dates back to the Middle Ages. Buy Now from Art.com Renoir Ball at the Moulin De La Galette The success of French art has led to many French paintings being displayed by significant art galleries and museums from outside of France, keen to include foreign influences within their own collections. London for example holds substantial amounts of works from several notable French painters such as Fragonard and Nicolas Poussin. There are also Claude Monet paintings held within this city too that includes galleries such as The National Gallery, The Tate, The Portrait Gallery and Tate Modern. Buy Now from Art.com La Mariee Marc Chagall Jean Fragonard famously painted the swing and other rococo style paintings in his period which came many centuries before the rise of the impressionists and marks another movement which had valuable contributions from France based painters. The rococo style was well known for it's elaborate finishes and also took in many others mediums besides just oil painting such as furniture and pottery.

The exceptional attention to detail used by the likes of Fragonard have ensured that this traditional style remains much loved today and the swing painting itself remains a major draw in the uk where it is currently displayed. Buy Now from Art.com Henri Matisse Open Window Paris, the French capital, has long been seen as the artistic and creative capital of the world at various points over the past few centuries, though this location could now perhaps be seen as New York. During the 19th century artists from around the world would move to Paris in order to discover new ideas and techniques from a whole wide variety of influences which already existed there, normally to be found in small blocks where artists would live together and discuss creative ideas almost around the clock. Buy Now from Art.com Sunset Felix Vallotton Famous landscape paintings can be found throughout the history of French art, with most attributed to painters who were well known for their careers as a whole rather than individual paintings. There are also many famous landscape paintings produced by foreign artists whilst living within France, such as from the work of Vincent Van Gogh, Alfred Sisley and many others.

Some painters who moved to France preferred to stay within the boundaries of Paris, but those who went beyond generally found excellent opportunities available within the natural landscape of this beautiful country. Buy Now from Art.com Claude Monet Poppies The French landscape has proven a great inspiration to many famous artists over the years and many have become transfixed by the shear quality of colour that can be seen in many parts of the country, particularly in many southern provinces. Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh for example would completely change his style after staying within the French countryside and discovering true colour and the excitement which could be found through bright, bold choices. Buy Now from Art.com Paul Chabas September Morn There have been many foreign artists who have truly developed their careers from time living in France and have benefited from several different opportunities that this country offers. Amedeo Modigliani for example found great influences within Paris where all sorts of different types of artists existed and as such he could expand on his own creative and highly contemporary style. Van Gogh himself came to appreciate the landscape around the countryside instead and would spend most of his time there, capturing the bold, vibrant colours.

Buy Now from Art.com French Cafe Painting French cafe paintings are a popular topic for many art fans who find that these scenes remind them of French life and that can be something that many aspire to. French cafes were often the centre of community life in certain parts of France and as such they are also depicted in a huge number of paintings and in many different styles. Degas’ L’Absinthe is perhaps the best known French café painting and underlines the separation in French society at that time, though there are many other great examples to enjoy. Buy Now from Art.com French Impressionist Paintings France has become seen as one of the centres for cultural excellence across the world and it's impressive contributions go far beyond just the work of their famous painters. French art includes many different types of art media such as architecture and sculpture and there has also been exceptional achievements in other fields such as Furniture, Pottery, Food, Music and Film. The French lifestyle appears to many today thanks to the ideallic countryside that seems a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of western city life.

Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) - Find A Grave Memorial Departement de l'Eure Haute-Normandie, France Innovative and prolific French painter, best known as the leader, and unswerving advocate of the Impressionist school of painting. It is fitting that one of his pictures, �Impression: Sunrise� (Mus�e Marmottan, Paris; 1872), gave the group its name. Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840. His youth was spent in Le Havre, where he first excelled as a caricaturist but was then converted to landscape painting by his early mentor Boudin, from whom he derived his firm predilection for painting out of doors. In 1859 he studied in Paris at the Atelier Suisse and formed a friendship with Camille Pissarro. After two years' military service in Algiers, he returned to Le Havre and met Johan Barthold Jongkind, to whom he said he owed `the definitive education of my eye'.

He then, in 1862, entered the studio of Gleyre in Paris and there met Renoir, Sisley, and Bazille, with whom he was to form the nucleus of the Impressionist group. Monet's devotion to painting out of doors is illustrated by the famous story concerning one of his most ambitious early works, �Women in the Garden� (Mus�e d'Orsay, Paris; 1866-67). The picture is about 2.5 meters high and to enable him to paint all of it outside he had a trench dug in the garden so that the canvas could be raised or lowered by pulleys to the height he required. Courbet visited him when he was working on it and said Monet would not paint even the leaves in the background unless the lighting conditions were exactly right. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he took refuge in England with Pissarro: he studied the work of Constable and Turner, painted the Thames and London parks, and met the dealer Durand-Ruel, who was to become one of the great champions of the Impressionists, and also facilitated the exhibition and sale of their works.

From 1871 to 1878 Monet lived at Argenteuil, a village on the Seine near Paris, and here were painted some of the most joyous and famous works of the Impressionist movement, not only by Monet, but by his visitors Manet, Renoir and Sisley. In 1878 he moved to V�theuil and in 1883 he settled at Giverny, also on the Seine, but about 40 miles from Paris. By 1890 he was successful enough to buy the house at Giverny he had previously rented and in 1892 he married his mistress. Starting in 1890 he concentrated on series of pictures in which he painted the same subject at different times of the day in different lights --- �Haystacks� (1890-91) and �Rouen Cathedral� (1891-95) are the best examples known.

He continued to travel widely, visiting London and Venice several times (and also Norway as a guest of Queen Christiana), but increasingly his attention was focused on the celebrated aquatic garden he created at Giverny, which served as the theme for the series of 12 large paintings �The Water-lilies� that began in 1899 and grew to dominate his work completely (in 1914 he had a special studio built on the grounds of his house so he could work on the huge canvases). Following the signing of the Armistice, Monet offered to donate them to France. These paintings were installed in an architectural space designed specifically for them at the museum of the Orangerie in Paris. In his final years he was afflicted with cataracts and lung cancer, but he painted until the end. Claude Monet died at his home in Giverny, France on December 5, 1926 at the age of 86. Georges Cl�menceau, the former President of France, attended his funeral. He was enormously prolific and many major galleries have examples of his work.

(bio by: Edward Parsons) Claude Monet Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works | The Art Story Web Services & Hosting by The Computer Studio | Designed by DesArtLab Impressionism Impressionism A movement in painting that first surfaced in France in the 1860s, it sought new ways to describe effects of light and movement, often using rich colors. The Impressionists were drawn to modern life and often painted the city, but they also captured landscapes and scenes of middle-class leisure-taking in the suburbs. Edouard Manet Edouard Manet Edouard Manet was a French painter and a prominent figure in the mid-nineteenth-century Realist movement of French art. Manet's paintings are considered among the first works of art in the modern era, due to his rough painting style and absence of idealism in his figures. Manet was a close friend of and major influence on younger artists who founded Impressionism such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir was one of the leading figures of French Impressionism during the late-nineteenth century.

Renoir tended to favor outdoor scenes, gardens bathed in sunlight, and large gatherings of people. Known as a master of light, shadow and color, Renoir was also highly esteemed for his depiction of natural movement on the canvas. In terms of the French Impressionists' lasting popularity and fame, Renoir is perhaps second only to Monet. Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley was an English Impressionist landscape painter who spent much of his life working in France. As an enthusiast of plein air painting, Sisley was among the group of artists that included Monet, Renoir and Pissarro who dedicated themselves to capturing the transient effects of sunlight. He was a true Impressionist and committed landscape painter who never deviated from this style or subject into figurative work like many of his contemporaries. Camille Pissarro Camille Pissarro Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painter. Known as the "Father of Impressionism," he used his own painterly style to depict urban daily life, landscapes, and rural scenes.

Jacques Louis David Jacques Louis David Jacques Louis David was a French neoclassical artist who is best known for his historical and mythological paintings. In 1774, he won the coveted Prix de Rome prize. His most famous paintings include 'The Oath of the Horatii,' 'The Death of Marat' and 'The Coronation of Napoleon.' He was Napoleon's official court painter until the regime dissolved and David exiled himself to Brussels. Eugéne Boudin Eugéne Boudin Eugéne Boudin was a French marine and landscape painter who worked primarily in the second half of the nineteenth century. His reputation steadily grew throughout his long career, eventually being awarded the Legion of Honor in 1892. His plein air method of working had a significant influence on the young Monet and consequently the Impressionist movement. The French Salon The French Salon The Salon was a biannual Paris exhibition that, in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, became the most important regular exhibition in Europe. Initially restricted to members of the French Academy, it was later opened up; however, it remained strongly associated with the Academy's conservatism, and this eventually encouraged artists to exhibit outside of its confines.

Eugène Delacroix Eugène Delacroix Eugène Delacroix was a mid-nineteenth-century French painter and pioneer of European Modernist painting. Known primarily as a Romantic, Delacroix's paintings were passionate in their depictions of love, war and human sensuality, earning the artist both praise and controversy in his time. His preoccupation with color-induced optical effects and use of expressive brushstrokes were crucial influences on Impressionism and Pointillism. Jean Frédéric Bazille Jean Frédéric Bazille Jean Frédéric Bazille was an Impressionist landscape painter. Coming from a wealthy background, he helped his fellow artists, including Monet, Sisley and Manet with money and materials. His career and life were cut short, dying in battle during the Franco-Prussian War at just 29 years old. Romanticism Romanticism Romanticism was a nineteenth-century movement that celebrated the powers of emotion and intuition over rational analysis or classical ideals. Romantic artists emphasized awe, beauty, and the sublime in their works, which frequently charted the darker or chaotic sides of human life. John Constable John Constable John Constable was an English Romantic painter.

He is chiefly known for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his English home. He was not elected to the Royal Academy until he was 52 years old. His work remained largely unnoticed in England until later into his career, a fact which was due in part to his seemingly old-fashion artistic style. J.M.W. Turner J.M.W. Turner J.M.W. Turner (Joseph Mallord William Turner) was a mid-nineteenth-century British painter and watercolorist. Considered a key forerunner to the French Impressionists and the American Hudson River School of painters, Turner is known in history as "the painter of light." His trademark land- and sea-scapes are categorized as Romantic and Naturalist, given the artist's expressive and poetic application of natural light. Turner was among the last great pre-modern painters. Felix Nadar Felix Nadar Félix Nadar was the popular moniker of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, nineteenth-century French artist, photographer, balloonist and journalist. Nadar was a champion of the Impressionists, best known for his portrait photographs of the significant personalities of Parisian avant-garde.

Abstract Expressionism Abstract Expressionism A tendency among New York painters of the late 1940s and '50s, all of whom were committed to an expressive art of profound emotion and universal themes. The movement embraced the gestural abstraction of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, and the color field painting of Mark Rothko and others. It blended elements of Surrealism and abstract art in an effort to create a new style fitted to the postwar mood of anxiety and trauma. Mark Rothko Mark Rothko Mark Rothko was an Abstract Expressionist painter whose early interest in mythic landscapes gave way to mature works featuring large, hovering blocks of color on colored grounds. Jackson Pollock Jackson Pollock Jackson Pollock was the most well-known Abstract Expressionist and the key example of Action Painting. His work ranges from Jungian scenes of primitive rites to the purely abstract "drip paintings" of his later career. Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg was one the leading American art critics during the twentieth century.

Best known as the ideological counterpart to Harold Rosenberg, Greenberg was a formalist who coined the terms "American-type painting" and 'Post-painterly abstraction.' He was a staunch champion of pure abstraction, including the work of Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still and Hans Hofmann. Pop Art Pop Art British artists of the 1950s were the first to make popular culture the dominant subject of their art, and this idea became an international phenomenon in the 1960s. But the Pop art movement is most associated with New York, and artists such as Andy Warhol, who broke with the private concerns of the Abstract Expressionists, and turned to themes which touched on public life and mass society. Andy Warhol Andy Warhol Andy Warhol was an American Pop artist best known for his prints and paintings of consumer goods, celebrities, and photographed disasters. One of the most famous and influential artists of the 1960s, he pioneered compositions and techniques that emphasized repetition and the mechanization of art.

Minimalism Minimalism Minimalism emerged as a movement in New York in the 1960s, its leading figures creating objects which blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture, and were characterized by unitary, geometric forms and industrial materials. Emphasizing cool anonymity over the passionate expression of the previous generation of painters, the Minimalists attempted to avoid metaphorical associations, symbolism, and suggestions of spiritual transcendence. Gustave Courbet Gustave Courbet Gustave Courbet was a French painter and chief figure in the Realist movement of the mid-nineteenth century. His paintings often contained an emotional bleakness, and were praised for their precision and use of light. Along with Delacroix, Courbet was a key influence on the Impressionists. Jean-Francois Millet Jean-Francois Millet Jean-Francois Millet was a Realist painter in nineteenth-century France, and a founder of the Barbizon School. He is especially known for his depictions rural life and peasant labor. Charles Baudelaire Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet and art critic during the mid-nineteenth century.

His poetry depicted the harsh realities of urban poverty in nineteenth-century Paris, and often focused on the flanuer (one who wanders the city to experience it). The Baudelarian idea of the flaneur is a lasting legacy of the modern era. Emile Zola Emile Zola Emile Zola was a nineteenth-century French novelist, playwright, essayist and political activist. He was also the self-proclaimed leader of literary French Naturalism. As one of the leading cultural figures in France, Zola was close with the likes of Manet and Cézanne, and was the favorite writer of Vincent van Gogh. Realism Realism Realism is an approach to art that stresses the naturalistic representation of things, the look of objects and figures in ordinary life. It emerged as a distinct movement in the mid-nineteenth century, in opposition to the idealistic, sometimes mythical subjects that were then popular, but it can be traced back to sixteenth-century Dutch art and forward into twentieth-century styles such as Social Realism.

Neo-Classicism Neo-Classicism Neo-Classicism encompasses several distinct movements in the arts and architecture during the mid-1700s to the late 1800s that drew specifically on ancient Western cultures for inspiration. Looking back to the arts of Greece and Rome for ideal models and forms, both human and structural, Neo-Classicism was a category for literature and music as well as the visual arts. Jacques-Louis David and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres were the most iconic French Neo-Classic painters. Japonisme Japonisme Japonisme describes the influence of Japanese art, especially woodblock prints, on French artists in the second half of the nineteenth century. Many Post-Impressionists were influenced by the flat blocks of color, the emphasis on design, and the simple, everyday subject matter. Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter, commonly associated with the Post-Impressionist period. As one of the most prolific and experimental artists of his time, van Gogh was a spontaneous painter and a master of color and perspective. Troubled by personal demons all his life, many historians speculate that van Gogh suffered from a Bipolar disorder.

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne was an influential French Post-Impressionist painter whose depictions of the natural world, based on internal geometric planes, paved the way for Cubism and later modern art movements. Edgar Degas Edgar Degas Edgar Degas was a French Impressionist painter, printmaker and sculptor with an extraordinarily long career from the mid-nineteenth century until after WWI. As one of the original group of Impressionists, although he preferred to be called a Realist, he traveled widely and employed the use of photography in his creative process. He is most renowned for his painting and drawings of ballet dancers in rehearsal and performances in the theatre. Georges Seurat Georges Seurat Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French painter who gave rise to the Post- and Neo-Impressionist artistic styles of the late nineteenth century. Seurat's greatest contribution to modern art was his development of Pointillism, a style of painting in which small dots of paint were applied to create a cohesive image. Combining the science of optics with painterly emotion, Pointillism evoked a visual harmony never before seen in modern art.

Paul Durand-Ruel Paul Durand-Ruel Paul Durand-Ruel was a French art dealer who became the first champion of the Impressionists. His gallery in Bond St showed Monet, Renoir and others to the art world of London, and then further afield in the United States. He was known to support his artists through solo exhibitions and stipends. Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé was a French Symbolist poet and critic in the late 1800s. Densely written, his poetry played with both the meaning and sound of words, making it difficult to translate. His work was greatly influential on the Dada and Surrealist movements. James Whistler James Whistler James Whistler was a nineteenth-century American expatriate artist. Educated in France and later based in London, Whistler was a famous proponent of art-for-art's-sake, and an esteemed practictioner of tonal harmony in his canvases, often characterized by his masterful use of blacks and greys, as seen in his most famous work, Whistler's Mother (1871).

Whistler was also known as an American Impressionist, and in 1874 he famously turned down an invitation from Degas to exhibit his work with the French Impressionists. Georges Clemenceau Georges Clemenceau Georges Clemenceau was a French statesman and journalist who served as Prime Minister both before and after WWI. Known as 'le Tigre', he was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Versailles. As a journalist, he was a major supporter of Emile Zola, publishing 'J'Accuse', during the Dreyfus Affair in 1898. Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism refers to a number of styles that emerged in reaction to Impressionism in the 1880s. The movement encompassed Symbolism and Neo-Impressionism before ceding to Fauvism around 1905. Its artists turned away from effects of light and atmosphere to explore new avenues such as color theory and personal feeling, often using colors and forms in intense and expressive ways. Symbolism Symbolism Symbolism is an artistic and literary movement that first emerged in France in the 1880s.

In the visual arts it is often considered part of Post-Impressionism. It is characterized by an emphasis on the mystical, romantic and expressive, and often by the use of symbolic figures. Pointillism Pointillism Pointillism is a mode of art-making, first developed in 1880s France, in which all of the paint is applied to the surface as tiny points or daubs of color. Based on the laws of color theory, pointillism relies on the viewer's eye to mix the disparate dots into the lines, shapes, shadings, and color ranges of the full scene. Fauvism Fauvism Fauvism was an early twentieth-century art movement founded by Henri Matisse and André Derain. Labeled as "wild beasts", Fauve artists favored vibrant colors and winding gestural strokes across the canvas. Haystacks Claude Monet Prints, Paintings & Posters Buy Now from Art.com Haystacks Monet Haystacks are a popular topic within impressionist art and refers to a series of paintings by French painter Claude Monet who used Haystacks as a means to experiment with how objects' appearance can change when subjected to different conditions like time, light and weather.

Besides Haystacks Monet also tried similar experiments with water lilies, poppies and his very own bridge that was specially created in his back garden in Giverny in France. The Haystacks series was famously presented together in one exhibition with the artist doing his best to get across the purpose of this lengthy group of study paintings. The main focus of Monet's Haystacks paintings was to alternate between different seasons and positions to give different colour balances on the same object, which intrigued artist Monet. Perhaps the choice of Haystacks as an object for this sort of experimentation was done because Claude required something that was relatively three-dimensional and did not have too much external detail that might complicate the findings of his studies of light and season. One major focus of Monet's work with time involved the same objects subjected to sunsets and sunrises which gave a whole new palette of colours to the artist. You can learn more about Monet sunset paintings at Monetsunset.com.

Monet Haystacks above is the most popular from the full series, with this one offering a dreamy blend between object and surrounding landscape with a clear boldness of colour coming from a probable sunrise or sunset at the time of this painting, with a darkness across some areas of the painting with others filled with reds and yellows. As Monet experimented with different compositions of the Haystacks that spread across the field in Giverny many offered several together but in this painting he focuses on just one Haystack which helps him to go into far greater detail as to the effect of the distribution of light over the object. Haystacks in just one of several exciting topics that Claude Monet experimented with to great length during his career. Monet water lilies are another popular mainstream topic, with the painter's own garden in Giverny serving as an excellent base for the artistic study of these beautiful flowers as they floated around his specially constructed pond. Giverny's Haystacks were the inspiration for this series of paintings with Claude Monet finding this area of France to be his biggest inspiration for the landscape paintings which spearhead his whole career.

Giverny was put on the artistic map by Monet as he stayed and worked here for many years, constructing his famous garden which many tourists from all around the world still regularly flock to in order to capture a glimpse of the source of creativity that drove so much of this famous artist's work. The local landscape around his own home was also inspirational and filled with haystacks, poppies, lilies and all sorts of different varieties of trees that themselves made it into his paintings. The series of Haystacks paintings numbered a total of 25 and were displayed together in a notable impressionist exhibition. The series itself was created in 1890 and covered a full harvest season where Monet concentrated on as many aspects of the environment and it's effects on his subjects as possible. The large number of works in this series fortunately makes it relatively easy to get to see at least one of them with your own eyes, with the originals spread all over North America and Europe, always amongst the finest galleries and museums who were able to purchase them plus cover future insurance costs. Haystacks in Sunset is another of the series of 25 on Haystacks, and a noble member of this select group of paintings.

Monet did feature Haystacks on occasion outside of this 1890 set but they rarely get the same level of exposure. For those interested in the career of Claude Monet and his many hundreds of paintings which all achieved great standards within the impressionist movement, please visit Monet-prints.org which features a great selection of Monet prints with some opportunities to buy your own reproductions of the artist's originals as well as further discussing his extensive career. Haystack in Winter painting offers an alternative colour scheme with very soft shades bringing great light into this work and a neutral palette which would ideally suit many living rooms whose owners are looking to add some art for decorative purposes. The great variety of angles and colours within the series means that anyone looking to get their own reproduction can find exactly the look they need from within the list of 25 titles available in this series. Haystacks series helped to distinguish Monet from other artists within the impressionist movement as someone who would spend extraordinary amounts of time studying the same set of objects in great detail and would happily produce one painting after another which together would demonstrate his artistic findings.

Most landscape artists of this time would concentrate only on locations for their work and move around to find a new spot each time rather than staying in the same place for several works under different conditions. Advertisment Claude Monet Prints, Posters, Paintings, Quotes & Biography Michelangelo Claude Monet Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of the painting Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet. Monet is best remembered for certain topics of study, such as water lilies, haystacks and his wife, Camille. Certain locations also figure commonly such as various parts of his native France and other European cities where he travelled to develop his skills and take in new influences. Monet is seen as the figurehead of the impressionists which contains some of the most important artists from the mid to late 19th century, who were mostly French. Monet now lies as one of the most famous artists in the world alongside the likes of Picasso , Van Gogh and Warhol . The information here serves as a great summary of his life from exciting travel in the earlier years to his later works from his garden and devotion to wife Camille.

A key part of his success is his use of light to a level not seen before, and the consistency of his work over hundreds of paintings in a long career of achievement. Artist Claude originally made ends meet with simple street caricatures before becoming interested in landscape painting thanks to a chance meeting with Eugene Boudin. This local painter was more than happy to teach Monet the art of painting outside, or plein air, and this marked a key moment in his career. Monet is probably best known for the paintings that he created from his specially-designed garden in Giverny, which included his Water Lilies series, Nympheas and his Japanese Bridge. He also found this environment flexible enough to experiment with different lighting and atmospheric conditions, which is a hallmark of Impressionist paintings. The stunning house and garden can be visited, with many of his paintings also on display indoors. The garden itself remains in tact and unsurprisingly this attraction achieves countless visitors from all over the world. Amongst the house’s collection are many of Monet’s Japanese woodblocks. These came at a time when Japanese art was starting to be popular across Europe, and Monet was one of the first to be involved with this.

The artworks which he came across from Japan helped to inspire not only his work, but also made him very curios about the country itself. He was never able to visit the country in person, but his interest continued regardless. The Haystacks series served as an insightful display of the impact of light on an object, at various times of the day. Monet captured the changing light conditions on the same haystack and brought to life something that others would have considered mundane. This series has occasionally been displayed together in order to illustrate the differences across this range of paintings. The artist continued this approach with water lilies in his garden, with the added benefit that they were easily accessible, day or night. After haystacks, Rouen Cathedral was also used for a whole series of experimental paintings and this series has also achieved academic approval. Rather than capturing the beauty of the entire building, as would normally be the choice of an artist, Monet selected an area of it from which to impress his experiments of light changes over time. A series around Poplars provided further study for the artist, with the shape of these trees proving useful for his work.

He also captured the stunning architecture of Venice during a working trip, following in the footsteps of JMW Turner who had done the same centuries earlier. For much of his career Monet loved to travel around Europe and use local scenes as his subjects for his impressionist landscape paintings. As time grew on Monet spent most of his time in his beloved garden that he constructed in France as a perfect venue for his paintings. London was one city fortunate enough to have Monet visit for an extended period. He produced a stunning portrait of the Houses of Parliament whilst there, plus other scenes in and around the river Thames. Monet was a close friend of Whistler , and the two were strongly influenced by the earlier work of British landscape painter, JMW Turner . They ultimately took ideas and techniques from his career and developed them further. Monet’s work was also aided when mixing with other modern-thinking artists during his time in the early days of the impressionist movement. It was then that he mixed with many notable French landscape artists, as well as a few others who were from further afield. Claude experienced health problems with his eyes late in life, leading to unintended changes to his work.

For a time there was a reddish tint to much of his work as he struggled with cataracts, but successful operations meant he could continue with improved eyesight. The passion and desire for perfection of this artist meant that he re-painted many of the paintings from when he was earlier ill. Impressionist art often requires painting during a small window of opportunity during the day, where lighting and weather are exactly as required. By setting up this beautiful garden in Giverny, Monet was more flexible with his opportunities to paint, and also had perfect control over his subjects, be it his Japanese-style bridge or the water lilies and other flowers that adorned his garden.

Below is a list of famous Claude Monet paintings: Houses of Parliament, London Water-Lily Pond and Weeping Willow Weeping Willow On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt Impression, Sunrise The Woman in the Green Dress Le dejeuner sur l’herbe Flowering Garden at Sainte-Adresse Jean Monet on his Hobby Horse The Artist’s House at Argenteuil Poppies Blooming Madame Monet in a Japanese Costume Woman with a Parasol Saint Lazare Train Station, Paris Rue Montorgueil Camille Monet, on her deathbed Vétheuil in the Fog Street near Vétheuil in Winter Lavacourt: Sunshine and Snow Hut of the Douaniers with Varengeville The Cliffs at Etretat Branch of the Seine near Giverny Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies Pappeln on the Epte WebMuseum: Monet, Claude Monet, Claude Monet, Claude (b. Nov. 14, 1840, Paris, Fr.--d. Dec. 5, 1926, Giverny) French painter, initiator, leader, and unswerving advocate of the Impressionist style.

He is regarded as the archetypal Impressionist in that his devotion to the ideals of the movement was unwavering throughout his long career, and it is fitting that one of his pictures-- Impression: Sunrise (Musï¿½e Marmottan, Paris; 1872)--gave the group his name. Early works , Sainte-Adresse, near Le Havre 1840-1872 Last years His youth was spent in Le Havre, where he first excelled as a caricaturist but was then converted to landscape painting by his early mentor Boudin , from whom he derived his firm predilection for painting out of doors. In 1859 he studied in Paris at the Atelier Suisse and formed a friendship with Pissarro . After two years' military service in Algiers, he returned to Le Havre and met Jongkind , to whom he said he owed `the definitive education of my eye'. He then, in 1862, entered the studio of Gleyre in Paris and there met Renoir , Sisley , and Bazille , with whom he was to form the nucleus of the Impressionist group.

Monet's devotion to painting out of doors is illustrated by the famous story concerning one of his most ambitious early works, Women in the Garden (Musï¿½e d'Orsay, Paris; 1866-67). The picture is about 2.5 meters high and to enable him to paint all of it outside he had a trench dug in the garden so that the canvas could be raised or lowered by pulleys to the height he required. Courbet visited him when he was working on it and said Monet would not paint even the leaves in the background unless the lighting conditions were exactly right. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he took refuge in England with Pissarro: he studied the work of Constable and Turner , painted the Thames and London parks, and met the dealer Durand-Ruel, who was to become one of the great champions of the Impressionists.

From 1871 to 1878 Monet lived at Argenteuil, a village on the Seine near Paris, and here were painted some of the most joyous and famous works of the Impressionist movement, not only by Monet, but by his visitors Manet , Renoir and Sisley. In 1878 he moved to Vï¿½theuil and in 1883 he settled at Giverny, also on the Seine, but about 40 miles from Paris. After having experienced extreme poverty, Monet began to prosper. By 1890 he was successful enough to buy the house at Giverny he had previously rented and in 1892 he married his mistress, with whom he had begun an affair in 1876, three years before the death of his first wife. From 1890 he concentrated on series of pictures in which he painted the same subject at different times of the day in different lights--- Haystacks Rouen Cathedral (1891-95) are the best known.

He continued to travel widely, visiting London and Venice several times (and also Norway as a guest of Queen Christiana), but increasingly his attention was focused on the celebrated water-garden he created at Giverny, which served as the theme for the series of paintings on Water-lilies that began in 1899 and grew to dominate his work completely (in 1914 he had a special studio built in the grounds of his house so he could work on the huge canvases). In his final years he was troubled by failing eyesight, but he painted until the end. He was enormously prolific and many major galleries have examples of his work. ï¿½ 19 Sep 2002, Nicolas Pioch - Top - Up - Info Thanks to the BMW Foundation, the WebMuseum mirrors , partners and contributors for their support.

Question: Which French painter famously designed a garden at his home in Giverny, in which he created many of his most famous paintings?
Answer: CLAUDE MONET