“Water Lilies” (“Nymphéas”) by Claude Monet (Oscar-Claude Monet). Bright sunny yellow spots on a blue vibrating background of water. Amazing beauty! Want to see these paintings in person, but not in a museum, rather in nature? Go to Giverny, this Norman village an hour’s drive from Paris, where Claude Monet bought himself a house at the end of the 19th century.
He lived here for almost 45 years until his death in 1926, and he is buried here in the cemetery of the local church. His friend, French President Georges Clemenceau, whose private residence was nearby, often visited him here. It was here that they came up with the idea of a wonderful and unusual gift that Claude Monet decided to give to France in honor of the signing of peace in World War I. This gift is the huge panels “Nymphéas,” painted by the artist in his Japanese garden in Giverny, for which special rooms were later arranged in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.
These delicate pink and white flowers still bloom on the blue surface of the pond with its humped Japanese bridge. And in front of Monet’s house, in pink tones with a charming “yellow” dining room, there is a “French-style” garden with a whole sea of flowers: irises, roses, asters, daisies, tulips, gladioluses of various shades… This garden is one of the most beautiful in France!
Inside the house is a magnificent collection of Japanese prints that inspired the great master of Impressionism. And in the studio, where the famous “Water Lilies” were created from 1914, there is now the museum shop, where you will find numerous publications dedicated to Monet and his followers.
You can continue your acquaintance with Claude Monet and Impressionism in the Parisian museums of Orangerie and Orsay (Musée d’Orsay).
