by Ariane ~ March 4, 2010
Few visitors explore this corner of Monet’s gardens at Giverny. It is hidden between his home and a row of linden trees. The pathway leads to nowhere: it used to be the way to Monet’s second studio, but the latter is not open to the public.
Monet had a small rose garden in this very protected area. A big wall shelters them from northern wind. Roses don’t get much sunshine either, but apparently they don’t mind. Many plants don’t dislike shadowed exposure as much as they dislike big changes in temperature.
The roses planted in this pocket rose garden are at their peak at the turn of May and June. The picture was taken on June 4. If you visit Giverny at another season, you might want to look for this little corner not for the roses, but for the rhododendrons, the dramatic Philadelphus, or just for the shadowed bench offering views on Monet’s first studio.
by Ariane ~ February 22, 2010
The Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco surprises French visitors by the words written on the pediment of the main entrance : Honneur et Patrie. Surprises continue with its beautiful collection of European art including five gorgeous Monets.
The biggest one faces visitors at the end of a perspective through several large rooms. It deserves this honor. This enormous canvas of Monet’s late period, painted during World War One, is certainly one of the most splendid masterpieces of the museum.
Monet focuses on two patches of water lilies floating on the pond in his garden at Giverny. Unlike many of the paintings in this series, this canvas is very bright. Vibrant reds and pinks pop out the flowers, contrasting with the soft greens of the lily pads and the pale blue of the reflected sky. Curiously enough, a cotton like cloud occupies the upper corner of the painting, when it should be reflected at the lower part of the canvas. It is one of Monet’s favorite game to mix all the landmarks to create confusion in the eyes of the viewer.
by Ariane ~ February 6, 2010
During the Winter, when Giverny is closed for five months, the shutters of Monet’s house remain shut.
It must be dark inside, but nobody cares. The shutters prevent the cold wind from entering the building, maintaining a thin layer of warmer air behind the windows.
I don’t know if the japanese prints are still kept hanging on the walls. If they are, darkness is a relief for their fragile colors.
Shut shutters look like closed lids. When it is cold outside, sleeping is the best thing to do, isn’t it?
So do the bulbs hidden in the flower beds and the buds on the branches. Yes, sleeping is the best option before a very long time of intense activity.
by Ariane ~ January 21, 2010
Walking around Monet’s pond in summertime gives a strange feeling of deja vu.
This place especially, where the long branches of three big weeping willows reach the surface of the pond, offering views on to the blooming water lilies, looks familiar.
Claude Monet loved this spot that he painted over and over again, and that is even featured on the huge Grandes Decorations at l’Orangerie.
The vertical lines mixed with the floating water lilies and the reflections on the surface of the pond challenged his command of perspective.
by Ariane ~ January 14, 2010
It was a dream come true for me to enter Monet’s garden at sunset to take pictures of the dusk.
Cold Winter days finish in a symphony of very tender colors, soft pinks and blues, whereas milder days generally offer dramatic sunsets with flaming reds on low clouds.
As it was last week, it was just incredible to be there, in the absolutely empty garden, walking around the frozen water lily pond waiting for the sky to change.
During the Winter parenthesis, when it is closed for five months, Giverny stops being iconic. Monet’s pool is no more the motiv for world wide known canvases. It becomes a patch of nature again, a very small place indeed lost in the frozen landscape. The realm of wild life.
by Ariane ~ January 8, 2010
Monet’s pond is frozen.
A small coating of snow hides the surface like a new canvas.
Long blue shadows stretch on the shining whiteness.
Not a single flower.
Even the brave pansies are covered with a blanket of snow.
No colors, except for the green bridges.
Birds are hiding, but their prints are everywhere, like strange words written in the snow.
And the running water of the river reminds that life is awaiting under the appearant death of nature.
by Ariane ~ December 27, 2009
It is time for Season Greetings, so I wish you all the best for 2010.
Let the old year become a dry leaf blown away by the wind, and new sprouts grow, like green buds full of life and energy!
It is time for garden dreams, when flowers still sleep in the cold ground.
And time for dreams of travelling as soon as the sun is higher and warmer again.
Will you come to Giverny this year?
by Ariane ~ December 15, 2009
When the weather gets cold and evenings dark, it is nice to grasp one’s needles again. Do you like knitting? Alice, Monet’s second wife, loved crocheting. The word seems to come from the french, a crochet being a little hook.
Needle works were considered an elegant pastime in the 19th century. In the middle class, the so called bourgeoisie, and in the aristocracy, ladies and young demoiselles were not supposed to work. But they were supposed to develop their talents at sorted hobbies, watercolor painting, singing, playing the piano… A good command of needle works was also extremely important to be considered an accomplished woman. This meant you would be able to cope with a household. And idleness is so dangerous, isn’t it ?
Alice Monet had four daughters. There was no season for embroidering or sewing for them. When it was cold they sat in the salon, next to the fire place. When it was warm, they preferred the open air and spent the afternoon on the benches of this place under the big tree, on the corner of the Clos Normand.
This place is still called the Ladies Circle.
by Ariane ~ November 23, 2009
How could one get tired of this beauty?
The picture was taken this year on October 12.
There were still many flowers in full bloom, the gorgeous dahlias, contrasting with delicate asters and cosmos, and the bright yellow helianthus.
They provide a fabulous setting to the pale pink house.
September and the beginning of October are just breathtaking in Monet’s heaven at Giverny.
by Ariane ~ November 10, 2009
Monet’s kitchen at Giverny has a delicious flavor of old fashioned kitchens, where the scent of jam seems to be still floating in the air.
Monet, as a gourmet, was very interested by all what was going on in the kitchen, but in his times it was a place for women only. He had a very good cook and collected recipes for her to test.
The kitchen Monet designed for his house is very well organised. Spacey, it is covered with blue Norman tiles. It could look cold, but all this blue is enhanced by the shiny coppers. An amazing collection of saucepans, pots and kettles of every shapes, to prepare delicious meals for a large bourgeois family and distinguished guests.
by Ariane ~ October 30, 2009
Fall is a talented artist who paints beautiful works on Monet’s water lily pond at Giverny.
Late October is the best time to admire the warm reflection of foliage on the surface so often painted by the master of Impressionism.
Liquidambars, weeping willows, poplars, taxodium, beech, chestnut trees all offer their brightest tones duplicated by the mirror of the lake.
Then the breeze comes like a magic stick to blur it all and turn the perfect images into nature’s brushstrokes.
And the little green bridge is there to frame it all.
by Ariane ~ October 26, 2009
Monet’s gardens at Giverny will soon close: next Sunday in the evening, on November 1st. Just before their Winter sleep, they offer a gorgeous show on the side of the water garden.
The tall trees that surround the pond change their green or dark red colors for much brighter ones.
The taxodium becomes as red as a squirrel. It will last a few days and then it will loose its needles, until new ones grow next Spring, giving it a fresh green look.
Through the branches of the taxodium, like a spying eye, one can spot a window of Monet’s house in the distance.
by Ariane ~ October 6, 2009
The beginning of Autumn is a gorgeous season in Giverny.
Walking in the paths of Monet’s garden provides a unique experience of being merged in the flowers. Giant dahlias, cosmos, sunflowers have reached an incredible height.
All mixed together in enormous bunches of colors, they dance in the slightest breeze.
Overwhelming beauty.
The few visitors exclaim, astonished: It was worth coming! So many flowers! I wouldn’t have believed!
The air smells of sages, lavenders, and the acid fragrance of dying poplar leaves.
The waterlilies floating on the pond seem to be dreaming all day long. They hardly open for a few hours in the afternoon before closing again and returning to their sleep.
by Ariane ~ September 19, 2009
A detail strikes the visitors who enter Monet’s bedroom at Giverny: the bed is ridiculously small.
Claude Monet wasn’t very tall, and he didn’t share his bed with his wife. They had separate bedrooms. Not because they didn’t care, but rich families copied the aristocracy and had separate ‘appartements’, though they were connected.
Monet could get up very early without waking his wife. He loved to paint before sunrise, when the river is still covered with mist.
The bed and the armoire, which were not very expensive furniture, were painted according to Monet’s taste.
Monet had gorgeous views over his garden from his bedroom’s three windows. The painter designed his bedroom, he had it built just over the first studio. He wanted a lot of light in it.
The bedroom was the place where he hung his collection of impressionist paintings by his friends, an incredible collection of 35 canvases including 12 paintings by Cézanne, many Renoirs, Sysleys, Morisots, Manets and so on.
The desk is a beautiful antique from the 18th century.
by Ariane ~ September 2, 2009
It sounds like the perfect transition for the new Museum of Impressionisms Giverny: after the first exhibition dedicated to Monet’s Nymphéas, that ended with resolutely modern late works, the next artist occupying the galleries of the museum is Joan Mitchell.
Although Mitchell rarely admitted Monet’s influence on her canvases, undoubtedly she put her feet in his footsteps. She lived in the same riverscape, the Seine Valley at Vétheuil. In this village where Monet had spent a couple of very hard years, painting relentlessly, she bought the house neighboring his, almost a century later, and just like Monet she admired the beautiful natural setting.
But instead of trying to recreate nature on the canvas, Mitchell, an abstract expressionist, preferred to concentrate on her own feelings. She shared with Monet an amazing energy, a fantastic talent as a colorist, a special love for oversized canvases, and more.
The exhibition is on display only a few miles away from Vetheuil until 31 October, 2009 at the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny.
Joan Mitchell, Great Valley number IX, oil on canvas
