Japanese Garden

May 7, 2008

This part of Monet’s water garden at Giverny ‘looks like Japan’, as the painter would have said.

Monet was inspired by his large collection of Japanese woodblocks when he landscaped his water garden. He planted many exotic species of plants he could see on the prints, like azaleas, rhododendrums, wisterias, bamboos, Japanese maples and of course water lilies. Monet imported peonies in trees from Japan. Many plants in his garden had never been seen before in Giverny.

However his garden is not a true Japanese garden, the spirit being very different.