Claude Monet water garden at Giverny painting. Open the left menu of Giverny

We admired the views he sang. With reverence looked at Rouen Cathedral. We could not stop by at Giverny, where the master lived for 43 years - exactly half of his life. The second half - he was born in 1840, died in 1926, settling in Giverny in 1883.
All nature rejoiced with us that day - after the gray, cloudy days in Normandy, the sun generously flooded the entire area, as if remembering what jokes it played with the artist, leaving him no more than 40 minutes to work on one of the series of paintings. The laws of the Earth's circulation around the star changed the lighting after such a short period of time that Monet had to move from one canvas to another, each time changing colors.

To reach the maestro's house, you need to go through the village of Giverny. First of all, an admirer of Monet's talent finds himself in a vast garden. It was smashed many years after the death of the master, when a museum was opened in Giverny. Once upon a time there was just a meadow here, a small area has been preserved from it. With those very famous haystacks. This is the first thing we saw in Giverny.

Claude Monet "Haystack at Giverny"

The garden in Giverny is divided into small sections, they are separated from one another by bosquets or hedges.

The plants in each of the departments are thematically selected - they are in harmony with each other either in aroma or in color. There are branches with roses, in others only white flowers are collected.

Or only blue, or only red. All plants are grouped according to the seasons. They are changed depending on the timing of flowering, so with early spring before late autumn the garden is blooming and fragrant.

Giverny is literally immersed in greenery. While walking to Monet's house-museum, you involuntarily tune in to the wave of unity with nature, which the great impressionist expressed with all the strength of his talent.

An impressive queue at the cashier disappeared in a matter of minutes - organized groups have their own entrance, and there were not very many "wild" ones like us.

Approaching the house, first of all you see a polychrome sea of ​​flowers on a green background. It wants to swim and bathe, inhale, absorb, absorb, draw in the grace of the Earth. You freeze with admiration that all the variety of flora is placed and seated in a strictly defined way. It is subject to the artistic logic of Claude Monet himself - yes, this is exactly how his garden should look like and nothing else, that's right and it's very beautiful!

At first, the master's house itself is perceived as an integral part of the garden, which lives in natural cycles.

I really want to fill up, “swim until you’re blue in the face” in Monet’s garden, but I have to go to the house-museum - Sunday morning, less than 100 km from Paris and soon there may be a real “demonstration”. We have a few minutes to look at the house where the artist spent so many years with his second wife Alice and children - his and Camille's sons, and the children of Alice Oshede from their first marriage, they did not have joint children, but there was a family union of their children - the eldest son of the artist, Jean Monnet, married the daughter of Alice Blanche Hoschede.

Claude Monet House Museum

Curiously, this house was the second pink building with green shutters in which Monet lived, the first was in Argenteuil (Argenteuil). It became another residence of the master, where the garden was separated from the house by the railway, the same was in Vetheuil. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau once remarked, “He even has a railroad in his garden!”

At first, the family simply rented this one suitable house in Giverny. When Claude (I really want to put a middle name 🙂) Monet bought it, the house looked different. The estate was called quite interestingly - "the house of the apple press." An apple press machine stood nearby. In accordance with his taste, the master expanded the house in both directions, adapted to the needs big family and for your professional needs. A small barn nearby was connected to the house and became the artist's first studio. And although Monet mainly worked in the open air, he completed the canvases in the studio, and even kept them. Above this studio was his room. The master completely occupied the entire left half of the house - here he could work, relax, receive guests.

A narrow terrace stretches along the entire facade. Now you can get into the house through the main entrance, just like in Monet's time. It was used by all households, friends and guests.

There are two more side doors, they also overlook the garden. If he wanted to immediately get into his workshop, he entered the house through the door on the left. The right door was intended for servants, it leads directly to the kitchen.

The facade of Claude Monet's house is very simple, but the view is deceiving! As often happens, behind an elegant facade hides a very mediocre setting with an abandoned library, miserable bedspreads and paintings that do not touch the soul. This has nothing to do with Monet's house! Here, on the contrary, behind the modest appearance of the house, an amazing atmosphere is revealed, one can hardly imagine anything more charming. We go up the stairs and I feel my breath is taken away from the opportunity to touch another world - the world of color and the inviting atmosphere of simple comfort. The dining room, the blue living room take you to England, then you suddenly feel purely French features, and real Japan reigns around you! This can only be the house of an artist! Alice brought classic notes to the atmosphere, but the colors are the merit of Claude Monet, his word was always the last and decisive. At times, when the master left in search of new species, Alice wrote to him that she had changed something in her bedroom and was very pleased with the result. The husband's answer was always rather cold: "Wait until I get back, we need to see what happened."

Home visit starts with blue living room. In the old days, it was called the Purple (Mauve) drawing room or the Blue Salon. The blue color of the room was chosen by the master himself. The impressionist added his own composition to the classic blue colors, because of this it carries a special charm. The master chose the color not only in Alice's living room, but also in all rooms of the house.

The interior of the room is designed in the French style of the XVIII century. The living room is small in size and was intended for the mistress of the house, Alice. She usually spent time here embroidering, she liked to sit with the children. But sometimes it happened that numerous guests crowded precisely in the blue salon. This happened when Monet worked in his studio or meditated in the bedroom, or caught the last rays of the setting sun, working in the open air. Here the guests waited for the host, chatted, drank tea. In dank autumn days water for tea was heated in a large samovar.

Alice often rested here with her eyes closed. When Claude Monet left for sketches, in letters to his wife he often mentioned that he was waiting, could not wait until he could finally unpack his new canvases and examine them with his wife. The bright, saturated blue of the walls and furniture is surprisingly combined with Japanese prints. Most of the engravings of the master's significant collection hung here.

Japanese prints in Monet's house.

Traditional Japanese engravings are prints made from wooden planks. Their cliches were first carved on slices of cherry or pear wood. They have become extremely popular in Japan due to their relatively low price and mass production. In the 19th century, Japanese engraving was also carried away in Europe.

Hiroshige Asakusa Rice Fiels during the Festival of the Cock

Monet passionately collected them for 50 years and accumulated 231 engravings. It is generally accepted that the master bought the first engraving in the early 1870s in Holland. But it is also known that Monet had seen such drawings before. He himself admitted that once, back in Le Havre, when he was truant school lessons, then I saw Japanese engravings brought from the East by merchant ships following to Germany, Holland, England and America. It was then that the future founder of impressionism encountered the first low-quality pictures, they were sold in the coastal shop of Le Havre, Monet's hometown. Which of the engravings appeared first in his collection, now no one will say.

Hokusai “Good weather with a southerly wind” - one of the 36 views of Mount Fuji from the Claude Mont collection

Maestro not only carefully collected his collection, he gladly gave away pictures. Monet constantly bought hundreds of them and also easily parted with many. “Do you like Japanese prints? Choose some for yourself!” - every now and then heard in the house of Monet. The master's children and stepsons generously presented Japanese engravings.

The themes of the drawings that he collected corresponded to the diverse interests of the artist - nature, theater, music, rural life, botany, entomology, everyday scenes. He loved to see them around him and he himself admitted that these drawings inspire him very much.

Engravings adorn the walls of all rooms of the Monet house, they are also in the passage room, which served as a pantry.

From the blue living room we go to pantry. Sometimes it is difficult to understand the logic of the organization of space. Why, for example, do they get into the pantry from the living room, and not from the kitchen? It's just that the house does not have a corridor connecting all the rooms, any of them could be a walk-through. For convenience, it was the pantry that became the link between other rooms.

Even despite this role, the pantry has become an important part of the interior. This is evidenced by several engravings on the wall. They depict merchant ships with flags fluttering in the wind, they carry goods from Yokohama to the eastern shores and back. In another engraving, we see women in kimonos and crinolines at the stalls of foreign merchants in Yokohama. Engravings in blue tones get along well here with the wardrobe - the main piece of furniture.

The closet was locked with a key, which was always kept by the mistress of the house. And only she discovered the riches of exotic countries - Bourbon vanilla, nutmeg and cloves from Cayenne, cinnamon from Ceylon and pepper delivered from the Dutch East Indies. Spices were quite rare and very expensive at that time. The aromas of Javanese coffee and Ceylon tea wafted from the bamboo-style cabinet. Chinese tea in late XIX centuries have not yet been drunk, it appeared in Europe only at the beginning of the 20th century. All this wealth lay in iron cans, boxes, caskets from the best Parisian masters. They kept here English tea, and olive oil from Aix, and foie gras from. There are drawers in the closet and locks are also built into each of them.

The pantry is a cold room, it was not specially heated so that food could be stored, mainly eggs and tea. In Monet's time, much more eggs were eaten than now. There are two storage boxes fixed on the wall, they can hold 116 pieces. The Monet family did not buy eggs, they had their own chicken coop in the yard. Although neither Alice nor, especially, Claude Monet ever perceived life in Giverny as provincial. From villagers they were separated by a vast garden and a high fence. But gradually they got to know several local families. However, a lot of time passed until their hens began to lay, the cow began to give enough milk and berries appeared on the currant bushes.

Go to first workshop, and later - Monet's living room. Through the south window, light flows like a river into the master's living room, and the bay window facing east also helps with good lighting. But such lighting is not at all suitable, in the artist's workshop the windows should face north! Because of the first floor, it was impossible to arrange windows to the north in this room, and from the very beginning, Monet knew that his studio would not stay here for long, he would pick up a better room.

And so it happened, later his first workshop became a living room. Although it remained a room for work, which alternated with family and friendly conversations, here Monet and Alice received numerous visitors, friends, guests, art dealers, critics, collectors. Here were two desks- him and Alice. Both of them were in active correspondence, both wrote a lot and every day. Under the large window is a mahogany Cuban secretary. Chairs, a coffee table, a music table, a renaissance-style bookcase filled to overflowing with books, a sofa, two Chinese vases - everything has been preserved here since the time of Monet. Large vases were usually filled with flowers of the same variety, they were placed throughout the living room. Persian rugs added a touch of elegance to the room.

The reproductions of Monet's paintings on the walls take visitors back to the time of the artist, because the master loved to keep canvases that reminded him of every step of his career. True, the originals, which previously adorned the walls of the living room, are now exhibited in Paris, at the Monet Marmottan Museum. Previously, there were works that Monet could not part with. Sometimes, already sold paintings, he bought back, then sold again and again exchanged or bought.

He barely made ends meet when, for 50 francs, he offered to buy the canvas “Veteuil in the Fog”, written in 1879, to Jean-Baptiste Faure. It seemed to Tom that the picture was too white, the colors were too scarce, and in general, it was impossible to determine what was still depicted on the canvas. One day, many years later, Faure came to Giverny and saw this picture on the wall in this very first workshop of the master and showed genuine interest in it. Monet replied to the guest that this painting was no longer for sale at any price and reminded Faure of the circumstances under which he had already seen Vetheuil in the Fog. The embarrassed Faure found several good reasons to leave Giverny as soon as possible.

Here, as elsewhere in the house, the original atmosphere has been preserved and this creates a feeling of the presence of a master. He's really invisible here. Although instead of a living master, his bust by Paul Paulin was installed in the first studio. The bust reminds that Monet became a legend during his lifetime. True, he had to wait for recognition, it came to the artist only at the age of 50.

Claude Monet in his first living room

As the master expected, a second, more comfortable workshop was soon built, it was located separately in the western part of the garden. To do this, they had to break down the buildings standing there, and as soon as Monet bought a pink house, he demolished everything superfluous without hesitation and finally became the owner of a real workshop, where everything was arranged for work, there was enough space and a huge window facing north! The second workshop became the sanctuary of the master, where no one disturbed him during his work.

I cannot say whether this workshop has been preserved, the book does not say anything about this and it is not shown to tourists.

Bedroom K. Monet located directly above his first studio-living room. To get to the artist's bedroom, you need to return to the pantry again. From there, a very steep staircase leads up - this is the only way to the master's rest room. In days of despair, doubt, bad mood and illness, the master avoided any society, even those closest to him. Sometimes he did not leave his bedroom for days, walking up and down it, did not go down to dinner, and food was brought to him here. Silence enveloped the house on such days. Even in the dining room there were no voices if the owner was not in it.

In the bedroom we will find a rather simple bed where the artist slept and where he rested in a Bose on December 5, 1926. The walls in his room are white, in the time of Monet there was still a secretary from the time of Louis XIV and two chests of drawers. The furniture was a good hundred years old already during the lifetime of the master, it was made at the end of the 18th century.

From each of three windows The bedrooms offer magnificent views to the garden. Two of them are oriented to the south and one - to the west.

But the main treasure of Monet's bedroom was paintings. The collection also occupied the walls in the bathroom, and continued into Alice's bedroom. There were three canvases, 12 works, nine canvases, five - Berthe Morisot, several -, three paintings by Camille Pissarro, there was Alfred Sisley, a seascape by Albert Marquet. The collections were complemented by the pastels of Morisot, Edouard Manet, Paul Signac and even a couple of sculptures by Auguste Rodin.

Alice's bedroom located next to Monet's room. As was customary in the homes of the nobility at that time, the husband and wife slept in separate bedrooms. They connect through the door in the bathroom.

The very simple room of the artist's second wife is decorated with Japanese prints depicting women. This is one of the few rooms in the house with windows facing the street, that is, to the north. In her room, you can imagine how narrow the house really is. From her bedroom window, Madame Monet could watch the children playing at the other end of the estate.

At the very top of the main staircase there is a small storage room for laundry. And along it we fall into dining room. Perhaps this is the most exciting room in Monet's house. How many celebrities has she seen in her lifetime!

In Monet's time, an invitation to dinner meant that guests strictly and unconditionally agreed to all the immutable traditions of the house. This means that if the guest is not a gourmet, then at least he is a connoisseur of haute cuisine. He must like everything Japanese. Guests are required to know the strict routine of the house, where everything lived in accordance with the working rhythm of the owner, and with dignity to obey the rules and discipline, which was close to the Benedictine. The daily routine was strict and unshakable. Even walking through the house and garden followed a carefully worked out route.

Monet significantly expanded the dining room at the expense of the former kitchen, it became large and bright, its French windows overlook the veranda. In that Victorian era, dark and gloomy interior tones were in vogue. The master paid little attention to fashion and decided to give the dining room two shades of yellow. The vibrating hues of ocher accentuated the blueness of the earthenware from Rouen and Delft in the sideboard. The floor is covered with chess tiles - the pattern is created by white and dark red panels, this combination was very loved at that time. The ceiling, walls and furniture are painted in two shades of yellow. 12 people sat freely at a large table, but sometimes it was also set for 16 people.

The dining room, which itself looked like an art gallery, gathered the whole family, their friends and guests of honor, including guests from Japan such as Mr. Kuroki Hayashi (Kurokis Hayashi). A yellow linen tablecloth was always laid out on the table, usually they put a Japanese faience service, which was called “ Cherry tree” or white porcelain service with wide yellow borders with blue trim. Organza curtains, also dyed yellow, were parted for better lighting. Two mirrors were placed opposite each other. One was decorated with a blue faience flower stand from Rouen, the other had a gray and blue Japanese flower stand, in the form of an open fan, with a large vase at the bottom.

The walls of the dining room are filled with Japanese prints, which Monet selected according to his sense of color. His collection included works by the best Japanese masters - Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro.

For convenience, next to the dining room is kitchen- the last room that can be seen in the house. Monet decided it in blue. This color harmonized well with the yellow tone of the dining room. If the door to the next room was opened, then the guests saw a well-suited blue color for yellow.

View of the kitchen from the yellow dining room

This was another violation of the generally accepted rules of the turn of the century, when only the cook and his assistants reigned in the kitchen and servants came to dine. It is interesting that the owner never entered the kitchen, visiting it only once when he thought over the decoration of this room. He decided that the pale royal blue was well set off by the rich blue, which the master used everywhere in the interior of the rooms. This color scheme added even more light to the room with two windows overlooking the veranda and a French window, which, like most windows in the house, looked into the garden.

The walls of the kitchen are finished with blue Rouen tiles. They paid a lot of money for it, because cobalt was added to give it color and the production process was very expensive. Not only the walls, but also the floor and ceiling of the kitchen, as well as the table, chairs, ice box, salt shakers, cabinets are painted in one color. At the time, the color blue was thought to promote hygiene and also repel insects, especially flies. The blue furnishings of the walls and cabinets of the kitchen emphasize the radiance of copper utensils, a large collection of which is located on the walls.

It is not surprising that in a family of 10, food played an important role, and the kitchen was considered a sanctuary. After all, every day it was necessary to feed breakfast, lunch and dinner not only to household members, but also to guests and servants. Here everything was subject to the purpose of the room. Every day, in the heat and in the cold, a huge stove was stoked in the kitchen with coal or wood. A huge cauldron with a copper lid is built into it and there was always hot water in the house.

Every day a peasant knocked on a small window overlooking the street and announced that he had delivered the order for vegetables and fruits received the day before. Steps next to the window led to a vast cellar where perishable food was stored, and ice was delivered from nearby Vernon.

The kitchen barely left the cooks free time. Constantly it was necessary to cut, crumble, interfere, chop. And then - to wash, clean, polish numerous copper gravy boats, pots, teapots until the next time, which never lingered.

As elsewhere, several cooks, sometimes entire dynasties, served in Monet's house. For example, Karolina and Melanie gave their names to the recipes they invented. And the most famous cook of Giverny was Margaret. She started working in the house as a girl. Then she introduced Monet to her fiancé, Paul. And so that Margaret would not leave home, Monet took Paul to work. Margaret remained at her post even after the death of the maestro, until 1939. In rare moments of relaxation, Margaret liked to sit in a low chair without handles and leaf through a recipe book, from where she drew inspiration, like her master from Japanese prints. Sometimes she just stared out into the garden, where two cherry blossoms bloomed in white and soft pink. When she left Giverny and returned to her native Berry, she recalled: “The work in Giverny was very hard, but when I worked, there were always two Japanese trees in front of me.”

The tour of the house ends here. We move to the Normandy Garden or Clos Normand and then to the Water Garden.

Photography is prohibited in the museum. But noticing that in the artist's first workshop-studio all visitors take pictures, I also took a few shots.
The rest of the pictures are taken from the website of the Claude Monet House Museum.
Based on the book by Cdaire Joyes “Claude Monet at Giverny. A Tour and History of the House and Garden”, Stipa, Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), 2010

A picturesque place is located 80 kilometers north of Paris Giverny (Giverny). Hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world, hundreds of thousands of people who are not indifferent to beauty, make a pilgrimage here. An impressionist artist lived and worked here for forty-three years. Claude Monet.

In 1883, the artist bought a house in this village, where he settled with his entire large family. Monet idolized nature. He was fond of gardening, bought books, and took great interest in the land near his new home.

The artist exchanged seeds with other gardeners, carried on an active correspondence with nurseries. For local peasants, “urban” ones were an unusual sight. The artist did not shun any dirty work in the garden, the locals respected him very much.

The Monet family for a walk in the garden (artist on the right)

Édouard Manet "The Monet Family in the Garden"

Monet at his house in Giverny

At first, the house and the surrounding land occupied no more than 1 hectare. But after 10 years, when Monet's financial affairs went well, he bought another plot, which was separated from the old one by the railway. Later it was replaced with a roadbed for cars, so Monet's territory remained divided.

Thanks to artistic talent and diligence, what used to be just a vegetable garden near the house turned, thanks to Monet, into a real celebration of color, light and beauty. He planted everything with various kinds of flowers and plants.

The artist was so fond of plants and flowers (which means an abundance of colors during their flowering!) that when he got a voluminous catalog of flower seeds, he did not spend much time studying it and ordered everything! Roses, lilies, wisteria, tulips, daisies, sunflowers, gladioli, asters - all this met the eyes of the Monet family and their guests.

But the second part of the garden, behind the highway, causes special attention and awe among visitors. This is the so-called water garden. You can get there through a tunnel. Everyone who comes here involuntarily freezes, holding his breath, seeing the masterpiece created by the great artist, recognizing the plots of his world-famous paintings.

Claude Monet "White Water Lilies"

Claude Monet "Waters"

Claude Monet “Waters. Green reflection, left side”

He drained the marshland, formed ponds and channels, skillfully directing the water of the Epte River into them.
The shores of the pond were decorated with a variety of plants - raspberries, holly, Japanese sakura, anemones, peonies and many others. The main attraction of the garden is the Japanese bridge, entwined with wisteria, which simply cannot fail to recognize lovers of the artist's work. And most importantly, Monet ordered the seeds of nymphs (water lilies) from Japan and decorated the water surface of the pond with them. Nymphaeums of different varieties were planted in the pond, weeping willows, bamboo, irises, rhododendrons and roses were planted along the banks.

The garden for Monet became his muse and his main occupation. Claude Monet wrote about water lilies:

“I planted them for pleasure, without even thinking that I would write them. And suddenly, unexpectedly, the revelation of my fabulous, wonderful pond came to me. I took the palette, and from that time on I almost never had another model.”

The painting technique of this artist is different in that he did not mix paints. And he placed them side by side or layered one on top of the other with separate strokes. Monet's favorite manner of working in series allowed him not to ignore the slightest nuances of color, light - since each shade of the state of nature could be dedicated to a separate canvas. Japanese bridge? - 18 options. Pond with white water lilies? - 13 paintings. Water lilies? - 48 paintings. And the list could go on and on...

Claude Monet "Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge"

In 1916, when he was already 76 years old, he built a spacious studio to the right of the main house, which was called the “Water Lily Studio”. Here the artist realized his last grandiose idea - he created panels depicting water lilies, which formed a circular panorama of about 70 m in circumference.

These paintings he donated to France, and they were placed in a specially built pavilion, which is located on the edge of the Tuileries Garden, where it opens onto the Place de la Concorde. If you look at the pavilion from above, it looks like a figure eight. In two oval rooms connected by a lintel, paintings depicting a pond in Giverny are hung: six or eight canvases. In essence, this is one picture that conveys changes in nature in the course of the day that are inaccessible to the ordinary eye.

Art critics say that painting here has reached such perfection that it blurred the line between realism and abstract art. Claude Monet just stopped the moment, because everything goes away, but nothing disappears, and life is always an expectation. next day. It was a lifetime triumph of the work of Claude Monet.

Claude Monet “Water lilies (clouds)”

Claude Monet "Pond with water lilies and irises"

Claude Monet drew inspiration from the water garden for 20 years. Monet wrote:

“... the revelation of my fabulous, wonderful pond came to me. I took the palette, and since that time I have almost never had another model.

He first created paintings in kind, they gave reflections in the water surface of the pond, and then the artist transferred them to canvases. Getting up every day at five in the morning, he would come here and paint in any weather and any season. Here he created more than a hundred paintings. This is very surprising for a genius, but Claude Monet was a very happy person. He achieved recognition during his lifetime, loved and was loved, did what he loved.

“I am good for nothing but painting and gardening.”
Claude Monet

Monet devoted almost thirty years of his long life to his favorite subjects. The famous impressionist died in Giverny in 1926 at the age of 86. After the artist's death in 1926, his daughter Blanche took care of the house. But during the Second World War, it fell into disrepair. Later in 1966, Monet's son handed over the estate to the Academy fine arts, which immediately began the restoration of the house, and then the garden.

Restored after a long period of neglect thanks to the generosity of American and French patrons, Claude Monet's garden was widely known at the beginning of the century. Georges Clemenceau, who knew the artist from the time of meetings in the Parisian cafe "Gerbois" and owned one of village houses not far from Giverny, was so struck by this event that he even dedicated a small pamphlet to it, in which he wrote:

“The garden of Claude Monet can be considered one of his works, in which the artist miraculously realized the idea of ​​transforming nature according to the laws of light painting. His workshop was not limited by walls, it went out into the open air, where color palettes were scattered everywhere, training the eye and satisfying the insatiable appetite of the retina, ready to perceive the slightest flutter of life.”

Now Giverny is visited by more than half a million people a year. The French are planning to apply for the inclusion of Claude Monet's House Museum and the Garden at Giverny on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Directions to Monet's garden:

France, Giverny (80 km north of Paris along the A13 highway).
The garden is open to visitors every day except Monday from 9.30 to 18.00 (ticket sales end half an hour before closing).

The cost of entrance tickets:

Adults: 9 euros
Children from 7 years old and students: 5 euros
Children under 7: free
Disabled: 4 euros

Parking: free

Keep in mind that if you want to see the paintings of the artist, then you need to go to the Orsay Museum, the Orangerie Museum and a hundred other museums in the world, since there are no paintings by the artist here.

Claude Monet's garden in Giverny can rightfully be called a real work of art, which you can admire endlessly. The quiet village of Giverny would have remained a calm picturesque province, if not for the impressionist artist who passed by by train and fell in love with the local beauty.

Thanks to Claude Monet, tourists come here every year who want to really get acquainted with all the sights of the estate of the great genius.

Claude Monet attached great importance to light, its shades and the play of shadows and truly idolized nature. He bought a simple peasant house in Giverny in 1883. His large family was supposed to live there - his wife Alice, her children from her first marriage and their common children.

Monet was so madly in love with flowers that he planted a whole greenhouse of various varieties on his site. All the riot of colors, the play of light and shadow, unique landscapes immersed in greenery were reflected in the artist's paintings, which he painted with special love. A little later, on the site behind the house, Monet organized a garden on the water, the main attraction of which was water lilies blooming all year round. The artist especially liked to draw them.

Almost every day, starting at five in the morning, the artist spent time in this garden, transferring all the surrounding beauty to his canvases. It was at this time that the creations of Claude Monet were highly appreciated by fans. art and he has gained popularity. Many associates of the great artist came to admire the blooming garden, Giverny became associated with big name Monet.

The impressionist lived a long and happy life, leaving behind unique works of art. Today, everyone can get into Monet's estate. Roses still grow there and enchant with the divine aroma, white water lilies float in the pond, and the immortal spirit of impressionism flies in the air.

Living paintings by Claude Monet

Elena Tyapkina

“Seeing Claude Monet in his garden, you begin to understand how such a great gardener could become such a great artist,” writes the symbolist poet Gustave Kahn after his trip to Giverny, a picturesque village near Paris.
- Monet "great gardener"? The poet was wrong: Monet is a great impressionist who painted pictures all his life!
But no, Kahn was right: all his life - 43 years! Monet created a garden.

He always loved flowers and always painted them. And in 1883, having settled in Giverny, he became a gardener. Absorbed by the love of plants, he creates first a Normandy and then an amazing water garden. The garden is not born immediately - Monet is constantly trying, searching, experimenting. During his travels, he finds the plants he needs: from Rouen he sends field mustard and two “little funny nasturtiums”, and from Norway he promises the children to bring “a few special plants” from the northern country.

He collects books on horticulture, and above all others appreciates the translation of the famous "Illustrated History of Horticulture" by George Nichols; subscribes to almost all magazines about flowers and gardens; collects catalogs of seeds, especially interested in new products.
On trips, the artist constantly returns to Giverny in his thoughts. He asks his wife Alice how the garden is, worries about the plants, advises on how best to care for the greenhouse pets. Are there any flowers left in the garden? I would like the chrysanthemums to be preserved there by my return. If there are frosts, cut them into beautiful bouquets ”(from a letter of 1885).

Day after day, year after year, Monet patiently created his garden. The look of the artist and the hands of the gardener helped him turn an ordinary estate with fruit trees into a living picture, in which the beauty and variability of nature are conveyed through color combinations and shapes. In Monet's garden there was nothing superfluous, accidental, there was no blind collecting - only harmony.

The garden became a continuation of his workshop. Relentlessly seeking perfection, Monet first created a flower painting in a garden and then transferred it to canvas. IN last years life, he no longer needed to leave Giverny - he painted a garden. Moving on a small boat along the “alleys” of the water garden, the artist endlessly painted, painted, painted ... a humpbacked bridge, a water surface with trees, wisteria and water lilies reflected in it.

This is how a lyrical series of paintings appeared under the general name "Water Lilies". “It took a long time,” Monet wrote, “before I could understand my water lilies. I planted them for pleasure, without even thinking that I would write them. And suddenly, unexpectedly, the revelation of my fabulous, wonderful pond came to me. I took the palette, and since that time I have almost never had another model. Perception of living nature does not come to us immediately.

Monet's marvelous garden

But none of this could have happened: the authorities did not allow the artist to arrange a water garden for a long time, fearing that the nymphs, an unknown flower at that time, would poison the water in the Epte River...

And, alas, we will not see much: extremely demanding of himself, Monet burned many sketches and already finished paintings without regret. “Know that I am engrossed in my work. Landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession. This is beyond my senile strength, but I want to have time to capture what I feel. I destroy them and start again,” he wrote to biographer Gustave Geffroy in 1908.

The most significant work of the master was a series of huge “Decorative panels with water lilies”: “The sky and the horizon line appear only in reflection. In these panels is a constantly changing world; the world is incomprehensible, but it seems to penetrate us. And this eternal renewing world seemed to dissolve on the surface of a pond with water lilies.

In his declining years, Monet confessed to Georges Clemenceau: “If you write the world around us many times, then you begin to better perceive reality, or the little that we are able to comprehend. I comprehend the images of the universe in order to testify to what I see with my brush.

After the death of the artist, his garden was forgotten for a long time. The creation, which Monet created for half his life with such care and such love, gradually grew wild. Fortunately, the French Academy of Fine Arts decided to restore the garden. From small fragments scattered around the world: sketches, photographs, order forms that Monet made in nurseries, essays by journalists, they again tried to create a whole picture. The restoration took three years, and in 1980 visitors returned to the paths of the garden. Again, because Monet was never a recluse and sincerely rejoiced at any guest.

The garden covered an area of ​​about two acres and was divided by a road into two parts. The one near the house - the upper or flower garden - was arranged on the site of a vegetable garden. This is a "manor house in Normandy", designed in the traditional French style. The central alley is decorated with iron arches, on which climbing roses climb. Roses wrap around the balustrade around the house. The space of the garden is divided into flower beds, where flower thickets of different heights create volume. The strict straight lines of the alleys contrast with the motley carpet of flowers fragrant all year round. Each season has a special color scheme. In the spring - an abundance of daffodils and tulips, then rhododendrons, lilacs, wisteria bloom. Later, the garden turns into a real sea of ​​irises, the artist especially loved them. The path bordered by irises is depicted on famous painting The Artist's Garden at Giverny. Irises are replaced by peonies, daylilies, lilies, poppies. At the height of summer, bluebells, snapdragons, morning glory, columbine, sage and, of course, roses of all shades and shapes bloom. And in September, the time comes for dahlias, mallows, asters and chrysanthemums, the paths are occupied by nasturtium. This is a real kingdom of flowers and colors!

In 1893, 10 years after his arrival in Giverny, Monet bought a plot of land next to his estate on the other side of the railway and turned it into a pond "with aquatic plants for entertainment and recreation for the eyes, as well as a plot for painting." When planning the water garden, Monet followed the advice of a Japanese gardener who had been visiting Giverny for some time. Japanese motifs are clearly felt here, the influence of traditional oriental philosophy of contemplation of nature. In 1895, Monet builds the famous Japanese bridge, which seems to have migrated to the garden from an engraving by Hokusai. Chinese ginkgo trees and Japanese fruit trees stood out among the usual vegetation in the garden; a dense forest of bamboo thickets stretched along narrow alleys. The pond was thickly lined with ferns, azaleas, and lush rose bushes. The water was heated in some places, and luxurious tropical water lilies bloomed there. “Here and there, on the surface of the water, flowers of water lilies with a crimson heart, white at the edges, reddened like strawberries ... and at a distance some similarities pansies crowded together, as in a floating flower bed, and, like moths, spread their polished bluish wings over the transparent slope of this water flower garden; and a heavenly flower garden, too…” — wrote Marcel Proust.

The small village of Giverny appeared on the maps more than a thousand years ago, but is known mainly as the place where the world-famous impressionist Claude Monet lived for 43 years and where a huge number of his paintings were created. Only 80 km separate this picturesque place from Paris. Thanks to the presence of a famous master during his lifetime, the inconspicuous village became a haven and resting place for many artists.

Matisse, Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro used to walk along the streets of Giverny.

How to get there

The most romantic thing is to rush to Giverny on your own. The train from Paris Saint-Lazare goes to Vernon, where there is usually a bus waiting to take you the remaining 6 km to Monet's garden. You can rent a bike for 12 EUR at Café du Chemin de Fer, opposite the station. This short path can also be covered on foot: we cross the river and then turn right onto the D5 road. Be careful: when you get to Giverny, turn left at the fork, otherwise you will have to go around the garden.

By car, the journey from Paris will take about an hour. Take the A13 towards Vernon/Giverny until exit 14.

Prices on the page are for August 2018.

Search for flights to Paris (nearest airport to Giverny)

Claude Monet's garden

In addition to being Monet's home and creative workshop as an artist, the pretty village is the best illustration of his outstanding skills as a landscape designer and horticulturist. After all, it was the expanses of Giverny that became a blank canvas on which the artist experimented with varieties of roses, hyacinths, irises, combined stiff ferns and lush peonies, set off faded forget-me-nots with juicy poppies. And it was the landscapes of this garden that formed the basis the best works Monet.

Now admirers of Monet's work come here from all over the world to see with their own eyes a pond with water lilies and a lace Japanese bridge thrown over a pond. The artist also worked on this part of the garden with his own hands, painstakingly creating for himself a source of inspiration for the next 20 years. Here he created famous works"Rock of the Aiguille and Porte d'Aval", "Mannport Gate in Etretat", "Rocks in Belle-Ile", "Rocks in Etretat", "Hack in Giverny", "Water Lilies".

Monet's Manor at Giverny

After the death of the artist, his son Michel gave the estate to the Academy of Fine Arts. Its employees still carefully maintain the appearance of the house and garden in the form in which the owner left them, turning this place into the house-museum of the French Impressionist painter (Musée Claude Monet).

Inside you will not find Monet's works, but the house painted in bright colors is filled with everyday details of the master's life, and the hall is the famous Water Lily studio, decorated with reproductions of Monet's works. The best time to visit the garden is May and June, when wisteria rhododendrons begin to bloom around the pond.

Practical Information

Address: Giverny, Rue Claude Monet, 65-75. The official website of the estate (available in French, English and Japanese).

Opening hours: daily from April to November, from 9:30 to 18:00.

Entrance: 9.50 EUR (adults), 5.50 EUR (children over 7 years old and students), children under 7 years old enter free of charge.

Popular hotels in Giverny

Sights of Giverny

Walking around the surroundings of the Norman village is an opportunity to look at the world through the eyes of Monet, it is impossible to be indifferent to the plush green hills, fragrant groves, stone houses surrounded by well-cut wooden fences, courageous irises that make their way through the road dust, where they please, and not where the hand of man commands. And right away I want to grab a pencil, pen, brush, camera and capture the bewitching beauty of a simple rural landscape.

Museum of Impressionism

In addition to the Monet family nest, Giverny has other attractions, such as the Museum of Impressionism, created to host temporary exhibitions and installations of Impressionist artists. It happens that even Monet's works are exhibited in his halls. By the way, quite recently this building was called the Museum of American Art and specialized in the work of American artists, but it was decided to push the geographical boundaries of art that swept the whole world.

The museum is open from early April to late October. By the way, the sale of combined tickets is provided, giving a discount when visiting several attractions of Giverny. Address: Giverny, rue Claude Monet, 99. For more information about opening hours and ticket discounts, visit the museum's website (in English).

Cafe

You can take a pleasant respite by looking at the house number 81 on the Claude Monet street, where the former hotel has sheltered, and today the lovely restaurant Hotel Baudy. This place is a real legend: Cezanne, Renoir, Sisley, Rodin once drank coffee at the tables of this cafe, and at the end of the 19th century, only artists stayed on the upper floors, in the hotel. The "Hotel for American Artists" even preserved a number of paintings and sketches by now famous masters, with which the guests paid the hostess for accommodation. Now you can taste French cuisine by paying 25-30 EUR for lunch.

Monet's family vault

Next to the church of St. Radegunde is Monet's family burial place. The old church is a rural, unpretentious temple striking with its antiquity and special atmosphere. In this church, Monet married a second time, and was later buried in the family's family vault. The oldest street in the village, rue aux Juifs, in the medieval part of Giverny, is imbued with a special charm, as evidenced by the ancient buildings and the ruins of a medieval monastery.

• Where to stay: Starting point for traveling around the capital of France, it is best to choose directly

If you drive 80 km north of Paris, you can get to the picturesque place of Giverny. This village is famous for the fact that Claude Monet lived and worked here for forty-three years. Having settled in the village in 1883, the artist was so carried away by gardening that there was almost nothing on his canvases except for the views of his favorite garden and the poppy field, which is located on the edge of the village.

At first, Monet's garden consisted only of the territory adjacent to the house (about 1 hectare). Here, first of all, the artist cut down a gloomy alley of firs and cypresses. But high stumps were left, on which climbing roses then climbed. But soon the creepers grew so large that they closed and formed a vaulted flowering tunnel leading from the gate to the house.

Of course, over time, the stumps collapsed, and now the roses are supported by metal supports. This place can be seen in the Master's paintings: the perspective of the alley, where there are lush flowers on the left, right and above, and on the path below their thin openwork shadows.

The area in front of the house, which was visible from the windows, the artist turned into a flower palette, mixing and matching paints. In Monet's garden, a motley fragrant carpet of flowers is divided into straight paths, like paints in a box.

Monet painted flowers and painted with flowers. He is true talented person was both an outstanding artist and an outstanding landscape designer. He took a great interest in gardening very seriously, bought special books and magazines, corresponded with nurseries, exchanged seeds with other flower growers.

Fellow artists often visited Monet in Giverny. Matisse, Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro and others have been here. Knowing about the owner's passion for flowers, friends brought him plants as a gift. Thus, Monet got, for example, tree-like peonies brought from Japan.

By this time, Claude Monet is becoming famous. The painting technique of this artist is different in that he did not mix paints.

And he placed them side by side or layered one on top of the other with separate strokes. The life of Claude Monet flows calmly and pleasantly, his family and beloved wife are nearby, the paintings are well bought, the artist is enthusiastically doing what he loves.

In 1993, Monet bought a plot of marshy land next to his, but located on the other side of the railway. There was a small stream here. At this place, the artist, with the support of local authorities, created a pond, at first small and subsequently enlarged. Nymphaeums of different varieties were planted in the pond, weeping willows, bamboo, irises, rhododendrons and roses were planted along the banks.

There are several bridges across the pond, which has a very winding coastline. The most famous and largest of them is the Japanese bridge, entwined with wisteria.

Monet painted him especially often.

Monet's water garden is strikingly different from the surrounding area, it is hidden behind the trees. You can get here only through a tunnel laid under the road.

Everyone who comes here involuntarily freezes, holding his breath, seeing the masterpiece created by the great artist, recognizing the plots of his world-famous paintings.

Claude Monet drew inspiration from the water garden for 20 years. Monet wrote: “... the revelation of my fabulous, wonderful pond came to me. I took the palette, and since that time I have almost never had another model.

He first created paintings in kind, they gave reflections in the water surface of the pond, and then the artist transferred them to canvases. Getting up every day at five in the morning, he would come here and paint in any weather and any season.

Here he created more than a hundred paintings. At this time, Monet began to lose his sight ... It was increasingly difficult for him to distinguish and write small details. The artist's paintings are gradually changing. Details and nuances are replaced by large strokes of paint that show the play of light and shadow.

But even in paintings painted in this manner, we unmistakably guess familiar plots. The cost of paintings continues to rise ... Claude Monet died at his home in Giverny in 1926.

His stepdaughter Blanche took care of the garden. Unfortunately, during the Second World War, the garden fell into disrepair. In 1966, the artist's son Michel Monet handed over the estate to the Academy of Fine Arts, which immediately began restoration of the house, and then the garden. Now the estate in Giverny is visited annually by half a million people.

Claude Monet lived a great happy life. He managed to do what he loved, to combine painting and gardening, to live in abundance. He was very happy in his personal life, he loved and was loved. Monet became famous during his lifetime, which is rare for artists. And now all over the world he remains one of the most famous and beloved artists. And we are especially pleased that this outstanding person not only great painter, but also our colleague and Teacher, Master of Landscape Art.

Giverny on the canvases of Claude Monet

Biography of Claude Monet (1840-1926)

The education of Claude Oscar Monet began in the Normandy city of Le Havre, where the family moved from Paris in 1845, when young Claude was only five years old. In Le Havre, his father Claude-Auguste, together with his brother-in-law Jacques Lecadre, opened a shop selling ship equipment and groceries, while the family settled in the Faubourg Sainte-Adresse on the seashore.

Having learned to draw on his own, the fourteen-year-old Monet gained considerable experience by drawing amusing caricatures of the most famous people of Le Havre. These first works, filled with benevolent humor, made in pencil and charcoal, very early attracted the attention of the inhabitants of the city to Monet. The young artist has a "clientele", everyone wants to get their caricature, and he sells them for a price of ten to twenty francs. During this period, Monet is engaged in drawing under the guidance of a student of David Jacques-Francois Auchard, who teaches at the college where he studies, and gets acquainted with the work of the landscape painter Eugene Boudin, who differs from his contemporaries in that he writes on nature. At first, Monet, like many other residents of the city, was critical of Boudin's method, but having met the artist personally, he joined him and also began to paint outdoors - as a result, nature fascinated him as a painter for life.

Communication with Boudin confirms the young Monet in his determination to seriously engage in painting; and for this it is best to move to the French capital, where the most significant art academies are concentrated.

Monet had an understanding aunt, and she convinced his father to allow his son to leave the family shop in Le Havre and spend a trial year, 1859, in Paris. Having collected the savings resulting from the sale of caricatures, Monet went to Paris, having secured several letters of recommendation from collectors and art lovers who patronized Boudin and had connections with the artist Constant Troyon in the capital.

In May 1859, Monet moved to the capital and studied for some time at the Academy of Suisse and communicated with Eugene Delacroix and Gustave Courbet. At the same time, the young man met Camille Pissarro and, together with him, often visited Brassrey de Martyr (“The Tavern of the Martyrs”), where realists, led by Courbet, gather and where he also happens to meet Baudelaire. Monet visits the Paris Salons, visits the Louvre and writes long letters to Boudin with a detailed report. At the Salons, he has the opportunity to learn and appreciate the work of Troyon, a representative of the Barbizon school of landscape painting, which also included Corot, Rousseau and Daubigny. Monet consults with Troyon about his own painting, and the artist recommends that he enter the workshop of Thomas Couture to learn how to draw. But Monet was alien to the academic manner of painting Couture, and contrary to the advice of Troyon, he continues to work in the workshops of such artists as Arno Gauthier, Charles Mongineau, Charles Jacques. At this stage, Monet also gets acquainted with painting from nature by Daubigny, whose pronounced naturalism, as it were, throws a bridge from the Barbizon school to impressionism.

In the autumn of 1860, Monet was called up for military service and sent to serve in Algeria, where he spent two years. He recalls that this period of his life brought with it the discovery of new colors and lighting effects, which decisively influenced the formation of his artistic perception. At the end of his second year in Algiers, he is sent back to France due to illness. In Le Havre, Monet meets Boudin again and meets Dutch artist Johann Jonkind, with whom they immediately become great friends. At the end of the summer, when Monet is already close to recovery, his father, fearing for the state of his son's health, decides to pay the one who will replace him with military service, and also agrees to help in further painting lessons.

In November 1862, Monet returned to Paris, where, on the advice of a relative, the academic artist Tulmush, he worked for some time in the workshop of Gleyre, where he met the artists Renoir, Basil and Sisley, who very soon became his close friends.

In this regard, the work of Manet, who exhibited his “Luncheon on the Grass” in 1863 at the Salon des Les Misérables, had a great influence on him. The controversy started by the press and supporters of academic art in connection with this picture, which depicts a naked young woman against the backdrop of a magnificent forest in the company of two men who, by their clothes, clearly belong to modern bourgeois society, gave food for lively discussions among young artists: Monet also took part in them. It was during these years, during heated debates in the cafes of Gerbois, that Manet with his paintings became a symbol of the renewal of painting and the spiritual leader of a group of artists later known as the "Impressionists".

At the same time, Monet and his comrades in Gleyre's workshop often painted from nature in the forest of Fontainebleau, and in the summer of 1864 he traveled to Honfleur in the company of Boudin, Jonkind and Basil and settled with the latter in Saint-Simeon, a favorite place for artists.

In 1865 he exhibited for the first time at the Salon, and his two seascape have modest success. Monet leaves for Chailly, where he settles in the Golden Lion Hotel and works on numerous studies for Luncheon on the Grass, all of which are variations on the famous painting by Manet, exhibited at the Salon des Les Misérables in 1863. Basile and Camille Donsier, who later became his life partner, pose for the picture. The sketches are of great interest to Courbet, who specially came to Chailly to follow the process of the birth of this painting, made in nature.

Gustave Courbet and cartoonist Honore Daumier were truly the idols of artists far from officially recognized painting. The works of both - suffice it to recall Courbet's "Artist's Workshop" and Daumier's "Third Class Carriage" - shocked official circles with their realism, as well as the choice of subjects that were considered vulgar and unworthy of depiction on canvas. Both of them stood at the origins of realism - a trend that involved not only merging with nature and plein air landscape painting, but also the search for expressive means for the artistic embodiment of reality, where every person, regardless of social status, plays a role. It is understandable that Monet admired Courbet and studied his technique with interest, especially the use of dark backgrounds.

In the painting "Camille in Green" - a portrait of Monet's friend in full height, written in 1866 - the artist undoubtedly pays tribute painting technique Courbet. It is this work that is exhibited at the Salon of 1866 and receives favorable reviews from critics; he begins to be talked about in the press, and the echoes of his success reach Le Havre, allowing him to regain the respect of his family. At that time, the artist worked in Ville d'Avre, where he painted from life a large canvas “Women in the Garden”; for all four female figures, one model, Camille, poses. This painting, bought by Basil, was rejected by the jury of the 1867 Salon.

This time was very difficult for Monet, who was extremely short of money, constantly pursued by creditors and even tried to commit suicide. The artist has to move all the time from place to place, either to Le Havre, then to Sainte-Adresse, then to Paris, where he paints wonderful city landscapes. Then he again goes to Normandy, to Etretat, where he is helped by the merchant Godibert, who, believing in him, buys several paintings and provides him with a house in 1869 in Saint-Michel de Bougival, a village on the banks of the Seine a few kilometers to the northwest from Paris.

Auguste Renoir often visits him in Saint-Michel, and the artists begin to work together on the same subjects. At this stage, nature becomes the real object of study. Here, not far from Paris, between Chatou and Bougival, on the banks of one of the branches of the Seine, the artists find the most colorful corner, the most suitable for studying glare and reflections on the water - a small restaurant and an adjacent bathing place, a Sunday rest place for wealthy Parisians. The attention of the artist is attracted primarily by fleeting effects in a constantly changing nature; this orientation in itself becomes Monet's creative creed, to which he remains faithful in subsequent years.

From their joint creative activity are born famous views baths and a restaurant, known as the "Frog". This picture, like the Terrace at Sainte-Adresse painted two years earlier, testifies to the influence of Monet on painting. oriental art, which spread in France in the second half of the century in connection with the beginning of collecting Japanese graphics. In Japanese art, Monet and his contemporaries discovered promising new possibilities for reproducing the surrounding world in harmony with the “sense of atmosphere”.

It is on the basis of Monet's painting that one can most fruitfully explore all the complexities of the relationship between impressionism and Japanese influence. Been an avid fan all my life Japanese art. It was said that on the walls of his house in Argenteuil, when he lived there in the 70s, Japanese fans hung; in his last house, in Giverny, an extensive collection of Japanese engravings, collected by him over the years of his work, is still kept; and in 1892, Edmond de Goncourt wrote in his diary that he often met Monet at the Galerie Bint, a center for the trade in oriental works.

In Japanese woodcuts, he discovered the compositional effects that are achieved by a sharp foreshortening and a dramatic edge of the composition with a frame. In his declining years, he said to the Duke de Trevize: “In Japanese artists, we in the West appreciated, above all, the courage with which they frame their subjects. These people taught us a new composition. There is no doubt about it." His works really belong to a new type of composition. In 1867 he painted The Terrace at Sainte-Adresse, which he called his " Chinese painting with flags. It is indeed a striking composition - with an upper angle and without any center. The wide expanse of the sea is dotted with sailboats of various sizes - there are about thirty of them; along with a strip of sky divided into cloudy and cloudless parts, half of the composition is occupied by the terrace itself, on which we see a lot of bright gladioli and nasturtiums, and the variety of colors is enhanced by two slightly asymmetrically placed flags on both sides of the terrace.

The process of forming a new artistic language should also be considered in connection with the progress Science XIX century and its latest achievements, in particular the research of scientists such as Eugène Chevreul, in the field of optics and color contrasts, which became widespread in France in the second half of the century. Based on the observation of the physical phenomenon of perception, scientists have established that vision is the result of the interaction of the elements perceived by the eye and that the color of an object depends on the material from which it is made, on the proximity of other objects and the quality of light. These principles, together with the revelations of Japanese art, had a strong influence on Monet, Renoir and all artists who prefer to paint outdoors. We see traces of these principles in the impressionist painting technique: the pure colors of the solar spectrum are superimposed directly on the canvas, and not mixed on the palette.

In June 1870, the marriage of Monet and Camille Donsier took place, which was attended by Gustave Courbet. The young move to Normandy, to Trouville, where they are caught by the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war. Monet, being a republican, does not want to fight for the empire and, under this pretext, takes refuge in England.

In London, he meets Daubigny and Pissarro, with whom he works on views of the Thames and the fogs of Hyde Park. For fog effects, it was difficult to choose the right time. The winter of 1870-1871 in London is the worst in a century. The presence of fog is especially felt in Monet's views of Parliament, opened only a year earlier, Green Park, Hyde Park and London Pool. He himself loved the London fog, which he confessed to Rene Gimpel: “I like London more than the English countryside. Yes, I love London. It is like a mass, like an ensemble, and yet so simple. My favorite is the London fog. How could nineteenth-century English artists paint their houses brick by brick? In their paintings, they even depicted bricks that they could not even see. I love London only in winter. In summer, the city is good for its parks, but this is nothing compared to winter and winter fogs: without fog, London would not be a beautiful city. The fog gives it an amazing scale. Under its mysterious cover, monotonous, massive quarters become grandiose. Subsequently, he would repeatedly come to London and write more London landscapes than any of the famous artists.

In London, both Monet and Pissarro worked hard. Years later (in 1906) Pissarro wrote to the English critic Winford Dew-Hirst (then working on a book on the Impressionists): “Monet and I were fond of the London landscape. Monet worked in parks, and I, living in Lower Norwood, at that time a charming suburb, worked on the effects of fog, snow and spring. We wrote from nature. We also visited museums. Of course, we were impressed by the watercolors and paintings by Turner and Constable, Old Crome's canvases. We admired Gainsborough, Lawrence, Reynolds and others, but we were especially struck by landscape painters who shared our views on plein air, light and fleeting effects. Among contemporary artists we were interested in Watts and Rossetti.

Daubigny introduces Monet to the French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. While living in London, Durand-Ruel opened a gallery on Bond Street. This meeting turned out to be very important, since it was Durand-Ruel who treated the work of Monet and other artists of the future impressionist group with trust and interest, and helped them organize exhibitions and sell paintings. With the exception of the second exhibition, in 1871, Durand-Ruel represented the Impressionists at all exhibitions of the Society of French Artists. The works of Pissarro and Monet were exhibited frequently, and the asking prices for them indicated how Durand-Ruel himself valued them. At an exhibition in 1872, Pissarro's views of Norwood and Sydenham were valued at 25 guineas, and the next year, Monet's "Parliament House" was sold for 30 guineas.

Monet and Pissarro submitted their work to the Royal Academy summer exhibition, but, as Pissarro ruefully remarked, "Of course we were rejected." It must have been thanks to Durand-Ruel that their paintings were exhibited at the French section of the International Exhibition at South Kensington in 1871, but despite many comments about the exhibition in the press, they went unnoticed.

In 1871, Monet learns of his father's death and leaves for France. On the way, he visits Holland, where, amazed by the splendor of the landscape, he stops for a while and paints several paintings with windmills reflected in the serene waters of the canals.

Thanks to Manet, with whom he now has a strong friendship, he finds himself in Argenteuil on the banks of the Seine a house with a garden where he can grow flowers, which eventually became the real passion of the artist.

Renoir often visited him: at that time they became very close, the joint pictorial experience influenced not only the development of their individual style of painting, but also the formation of impressionism in general. The summer of 1873 turned out to be luxurious. They often painted the same landscapes, achieving amazing light and color effects with small, pulsating strokes, as if applied to the canvas from a spray gun. Never again will their work be so similar. In 1913, when two of their works on the same subject - ducks swimming in a pond - were exhibited in the Durand-Ruel gallery, neither of them could identify his painting. In the garden of Monet's house in Argenteuil, they painted each other at work. Renoir depicted his friend against the background of a mass of multi-colored dahlias, the bright colors of which are enhanced by the yellow and gray of the houses in the background. The houses are also set off by the glow of light clouds, barely touched by the yellow light of the evening sun. This idyllic period of their joint passion for light and color effects Monet conveyed with special brilliance in a picture depicting the facade of his house: Camille, standing at the door, and a small figure of Jean on the platform, in a straw hat with a hoop in his hand. Like the Renoir painting, it is painted in light, quivering strokes, but there is a sharp difference between the detailed foliage and the almost cursory interpretation of other details: the figure of Camille and the blue flower pots placed in front of the house.

That summer for both artists was exceptionally fruitful, and for Monet the subsequent winter was no less fruitful. Never before had they been seized by such a strong need to express in artistic terms what they saw at the moment, to transform the reality of their visual experience into bright, pure colors.

At that time, the financial situation of the artist also improved significantly: the paternal inheritance and the dowry of Camille's wife provide Monet's family with some prosperity. As before, from time to time he continues to travel to Normandy.

In 1872, in Le Havre, Monet wrote “Impression. Sunrise ”- a view of the port of Le Havre, presented later at the first exhibition of the Impressionists. Here, the artist, apparently, finally freed himself from the generally accepted idea of ​​the image object as a certain volume and devoted himself entirely to conveying the momentary state of the atmosphere in blue and pink-orange tones. In fact, everything seems to become intangible: the Le Havre pier and ships merge with stains in the sky and reflection in the water, and the silhouettes of fishermen and boats in the foreground are just dark spots made with several intense strokes. The rejection of academic technique, painting in the open air and the choice of unusual subjects were perceived with hostility by the critics of that time. Louis Leroy, the author of a furious article that appeared in the Sharivari magazine, for the first time, in connection with this particular painting, used the term "impressionism" as a definition of a new trend in painting.

But who are these "chosen and knowledgeable connoisseurs" who buy the works of the Impressionists? The first was the Italian Count Armand Doria (1824-1896), in features and mannerisms, according to his friend Degas, reminiscent of Tintoretto. At the exhibition, he bought Cezanne's House of the Hanged Man for 300 francs. He remained a constant patron of Renoir: after his death, when the collection was sold, ten Renoir paintings turned out to be in it. "Impression. Sunrise” was bought by Georges de Bellio, a homeopathic physician originally from Romania; Pissarro kept turning to him for advice when his children were sick, or asking him to buy a painting when he needed it. Monet also constantly turned to him for help, in particular, in the following letter: “It is impossible to imagine how unhappy I am. At any moment they can come to describe my things. And this is just at the time when I had a hope to improve my affairs. Thrown out on the street, without any means, I will be willing to find any job that comes my way. This will be a terrible blow. I don't even want to think about it. I'm making one last attempt. If I had 500 francs, I would have been saved. I have 25 paintings left. For this amount, I am ready to give them to you. By taking these canvases, you will save them.” De Bellio, in addition, bought eight paintings from Renoir, as well as several paintings from Sisley, Morisot, Pissarro and Degas.

Monet also had another rich patron - Louis-Joachim Godiber (1812-1878), a Havre businessman and amateur artist who lived in a newly built castle in Montivilliers. In 1868, he bought several of the artist’s paintings from creditors, and in the same year, and in the following year, he paid Monet maintenance. He also commissioned him several portraits of his family members. Bought paintings by Monet and another local tycoon Oscar Schmitz. Originally from Switzerland, he ran a large cotton enterprise in Le Havre. But the most significant of Monet's patrons in the first half of his life was Ernest Gauschede (1838-1890), with whom he was later closely connected with the line of life. This director of one of the great department stores that sprang up in Paris during the Second Empire lived in Maugeron, in an imposing Renaissance mansion. There he kept a collection of paintings, which included six works by Manet, thirteen by Sisley, nine by Pissarro, six by Degas and at least sixteen works by Monet, to whom in 1876 he commissioned a series of decorative paintings for his home.

Having again traveled to Holland, Monet returns to Argenteuil. There Monet meets the artist and collector Gustave Caillebotte, they become great friends. In Argenteuil, Monet, following the example of Daubigny, equips a floating workshop to write directly on the Seine. He is still passionate about glare on water and, working with Renoir, Sisley and Manet, develops and refines a technique that allows him to grasp lighting effects faster than the lighting changes. On April 24, 1874, an exhibition of the Anonymous Society of Artists of painters, sculptors, engravers opens in the studio of the photographer Nadar on the Boulevard des Capuchins in Paris; Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Berthe Morisot, Renoir, Pissarro and many other artists of various stylistic trends are exhibited there, united by a passionate desire to dissociate themselves from the official painting presented at the Salons. The exhibition was criticized in the press, and the public reacted negatively to it; the exhibited works, in particular the paintings by a group of artists close to Monet, were too new and incomprehensible for admirers of academic painting, which was always created in the workshop and assumed that art is nothing more than the desire to idealize, improve reality in the name of the canons of classical culture.

The second exhibition of the group, organized in Durand-Ruel's workshop in 1876, also did not meet with critical comprehension. Monet then exhibited eighteen of his works, including the painting "Japanese Woman". Emile Zola, who always sympathized with the Impressionists, after this exhibition recognized Monet as the undisputed leader of the group. After the failure of the exhibition, it was possible to sell paintings with great difficulty, prices were extremely low, and a period of material difficulties began again for Monet. In the summer, returning to Argenteuil, he met the financier and collector Ernest Goshede.

In late autumn, Monet returns to Paris with the desire to paint views of the winter city through a veil of fog and decides to make the Saint-Lazare station his object. With the permission of the director railways he is located at the station and works all day long, as a result of which he creates half a dozen canvases, subsequently acquired by the merchant Paul Durand-Ruel.

Meanwhile, exhibitions of a group of artists, now known as the Impressionists, are held quite regularly. The third took place in 1877, the fourth - in 1879, but the public is still hostile to this direction, and the financial situation of Monet, again besieged by creditors, seems hopeless. It is because of this that he is forced to move his family from Argenteuil to Vetheuil, where he lives with the Goshede couple and paints several magnificent landscapes with views of the surroundings.

In 1879, Camilla, after a long illness, dies at the age of only thirty-two. “This morning, at half past ten, after unbearable suffering, my poor wife calmed down. I am in a terribly depressed state, completely alone with my unfortunate children. I am writing to you with a request to do me one more favor: could you redeem from the Mont des Pitiers (Paris city pawnshop) a medallion, for which I am sending you a security deposit. This thing was dear to my wife, and, saying goodbye to her, I would like to put this medallion on her neck, ”Monet wrote to his benefactor, Georges de Bellio.

In 1879, Monet paints a beautiful portrait of his beloved woman. A year later, Monet sends two canvases to the Salon, but only one of them is accepted by the jury. This is the last official exhibition in which Monet takes part.

In June of the same year, an exhibition of eighteen paintings by Monet opens in the hall of the magazine "Vi Modern" ("Modern Life"), owned by the publisher and collector Georges Charpentier. It brings the artist long-awaited success in the press. And the sale of paintings from this exhibition allows Monet to improve his financial situation.

He eventually achieved that he could do whatever he wanted without thinking about selling his paintings. Starting with his personal exhibition at Georges Petit in 1880, the circle of his patrons expanded. His income from Durand-Ruel in 1881 was 20,000 francs; in addition, he profited from the sale of his work privately and through other dealers.

He goes to write in Fécamp, in Normandy, where nature, the sea and the special atmosphere of this land attract him. There he works, living either in Dieppe, or in Pourville, or in Etretat, and creates a number of magnificent landscapes.

Meanwhile, certain changes are taking place in the Impressionist group and a split is brewing. Renoir already in 1878 did not participate in the fourth exhibition of the Impressionists, believing that he should try to return to the official path, and therefore exhibit his works at the Salon. Monet himself tries to do the same in 1880, and in 1881 he does not take part in the sixth exhibition of the group, but instead participates in the seventh, held in 1882.

In 1883, Manet dies, his death symbolically coincides with the disintegration of the group. In 1886, the eighth and last exhibition of the Impressionists officially took place, but Renoir, Monet, Sisley did not participate in it; but Georges Seurat and Paul Signac declared themselves. representatives of a new trend - the so-called pointillism. During this period, Monet, who moved with the Gauchede family to the small town of Giverny back in 1883, travels to Italy, to Bordighera, where he admires the splendor of light, and participates in exhibitions organized in Paris by the merchant Georges Petit. His trips to Normandy, to Etretat do not stop; there he meets Guy de Maupassant. In 1888, Monet works in Antibes. Thanks to the interest of Theo van Gogh - the owner of the gallery and the brother of the artist - he manages to exhibit in two Parisian galleries with restrained support from critics.

The following year, Monet finally achieves real and lasting success: in the Petit Gallery, simultaneously with an exhibition of works by the sculptor Auguste Rodin, a retrospective exhibition of Monet is organized, which presents one hundred and forty-five of his works from 1864 to 1889. Monet becomes a famous and respected painter.

After the exposition arranged in 1886 by Durand-Ruel in New York, the Americans became interested in Monet's creations. The result was excellent. In 1887, Monet's total income reached 44 thousand, and in 1891 Durand-Ruel and the firm "Busso and Valadon" brought him about 100 thousand francs. In the period from 1898 to 1912, his income fluctuated around the figure of 200 thousand.

The prosperity he so desperately dreamed of in his youth was finally achieved, and he made good use of it, creating for himself a citadel of economic and mental peace. Never before in the history of art has an artist's name been so closely associated with his home. This citadel also had physical parameters. In 1883, he began to rent a house in Giverny from a Norman landowner (the owner himself moved to live in the village of Vernoy), and Monet lived in this house for forty-three years, until his death in 1926. For the world of art, the house and garden in Giverny, in those years and to this day, have the same meaning as Assisi for the followers of St. Francis. Constantly surrounded by a noisy crowd of adopted children and the cares of a loving but grumpy wife, Monet maintained relationships with a huge circle of friends: artists and writers.

Traveler Monet, unlike other impressionists, was an avid. He traveled to Norway, where his adopted son Jacques lived; made trips to Venice, to Antibes, to Holland, to Switzerland, several times to London. In France he visited Petit-Dal on the Normandy coast, where his brother had his house; Belle-Ile, Noirmoutier, the valley of the Creuse in the Massif Central; finally Rouen, where he spent several days. From all these places he brought a pile of sketches, which he finished in Giverny. He traveled to Paris quite often - it was good to travel not far: either to the theater or to the Opera, where he listened with pleasure to Boris Godunov, and later admired Diaghilev's Russian ballet, which he highly appreciated. He closely followed the ongoing exhibitions, especially those where Van Gon, Seurat, Gauguin participated, as well as Vuillard and Bonnard, who came to him in Giverny. Monet read a lot, especially taking a great interest in Michelet's huge "History of France", known to him since childhood and nourishing strong feeling patriotism in many of his works. He diligently read modern authors: Flaubert, Ibsen, Goncourt, Mallarme, Tolstoy and Ruskin. He kept a solid collection of books on gardening.

Monet spent a lot of work on his environment, turning a dilapidated Norman house into an ideal place to live. Julie Manet, daughter of Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet, who visited there in 1893, shortly after some alterations undertaken by Monet, wrote in her charming diary of impressions: “Since our last trip to Giverny, the house has changed noticeably. Above the workshop, M. Monet arranged for himself a bedroom with large windows and doors, with parquet of resinous pine. Many paintings hang in this room, including Isabelle Combing Her Hair, Gabriel at the Basin, Cocotte in a Hat, a pastel depicting maman, a pastel of Uncle Edward, a very attractive nude of Mr. Renoir, paintings by Pissarro, etc.

But the garden seemed even more amazing: it not only expressed the personality of Monet, but was also a landmark in itself. Almost all his life, Monet lived in houses with a garden, and in Argenteille, and in Veteil, and he certainly captured them in his paintings. He was encouraged to take up gardening by Caillebotte, who had a wonderful garden at Petit-Genville and who corresponded with him on special matters. Those were fertile times for gardeners. New plants were imported to Europe from America and the Far East. In the 1880s, a new opportunity arose for those who did not have access to nurseries to order seeds by mail: this new business boomed. Monet avidly collected catalogs of seeds, and "arranged" his gardens like a picturesque picture. In his notes made at Argenteuil, for example, a snapshot of the distribution of colors for seven rows of roses is given: purple, white, red, purple, yellow, cream, pink.

Arriving for the first time in Giverny, he saw at the house only an ordinary garden, typical of a French village. Monet immediately began to remake it: first of all, he gave it geometricity by planting specific "garden" flowers: marshmallows, dahlias, roses, nasturtiums, gladioli; he planted them in such an order that their flowering continued almost all year round. The garden covered about two acres, and part of it was on the other side of the road. Nearby was a small pond; Monet bought it, along with the surrounding land, in 1893. Having received permission from the local authorities, he converted it into a water garden, letting water from the nearby river Epte through the locks into it. Around the pond, he planted flowers and shrubs: some of the local origin - raspberries, peonies, holly, poplars; part of exotic plants - Japanese cherry, pink and white anemones. The two gardens were deliberately opposed to each other. The one that was at the house retained the traditional French look: with alleys entwined with creeping plants; paths running at right angles to each other, with steps leading from one part of the garden to another. The garden that sprawled across the road and around the pond was deliberately exotic and romantic. When planning it, Monet followed the advice of a Japanese gardener who had been visiting Giverny for some time: Chinese ginkgo, Japanese fruit trees, bamboos, a Japanese bridge, as if migrated here from Hokusai's engraving, stood out among the modest habitual vegetation. Water lilies floated in the pond, and the garden was dotted with a labyrinth of winding and intersecting paths.

“My most beautiful work is my garden,” said Monet. And contemporaries agreed with him. Proust very accurately described this garden: “This is not a garden of an old florist, but rather a garden of a colorist, if I can call it that, a garden where the totality of flowers is not a creation of nature, since they are planted in such a way that only flowers of harmonizing shades will bloom at the same time. , creating an endless field of blue or pink."

Octave Mirbeau, a writer and critic who never skimped on epithets, gives this estate Full description: “In the spring, against a backdrop of flowering fruit trees, irises raise their swirling petals, adorned with white, pink, purple, yellow and blue frills with brown stripes and purple spots. In the summer, nasturtiums of various shades and saffron-colored California poppies fall in dazzling clusters on both sides of the sanded path. Magically amazing, fabulous poppies grow in wide flower beds, clogging withering irises. An amazing combination of colors, many pale shades; a magnificent symphony of whites, pinks, yellows, lilacs, with shots of light flesh tones, against which oranges explode, splashes of copper flame splash out, red spots bleed and sparkle, lilacs rage, tongues of black and purple fire escape.

Monet said that he spent most of his income on the garden. But this is only a modest exaggeration. He kept a gardener and five workers, and himself was constantly engaged in work to improve and expand the garden.

Turning to the prefecture for permission to rebuild the pond, Monet wrote that this was necessary "for the sake of a feast for the eyes and motives for painting." In fact, Giverny and its gardens not only served as motives for his painting; they gave him a kind of base for carrying out the project that was to become his life's work, and of which this garden turned out to be the apex.

In 1892, Monet finally marries Alice, with whom he has been in love for many years. At the same time, Monet wrote "Hacks" - the first large series of paintings, where the artist tries to capture on the canvas the nuances of lighting haystacks. changing depending on the time of day and the weather. He works simultaneously on several canvases, moving from one to another in accordance with the emerging light effects. This series was a great success and significantly influenced many artists of that time.

Monet returns to the experience of Haystacks in a new series - Poplars, where trees on the banks of the Epte River are also depicted at different times of the day. While working on Poplars, Monet each time goes to the site with several easels and lines them up in a row to quickly move from one to another depending on the lighting. In addition, this time he wants to express his own vision in the paintings, and he does it in a matter of minutes, competing in speed with nature.

Before finishing the series, Monet learns that the poplars are going to be cut down and sold. In order to complete the job, he contacts the buyer and offers him a monetary refund for postponing the felling. This series, exhibited at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1892, was also a great success, but even more enthusiastic was the large series "Rouen Cathedral", on which Monet worked from 1892 to 1894. Consistently displaying the change in lighting from dawn to evening twilight, he painted fifty views of the majestic Gothic facade, dissolving, dematerializing in light. He writes faster and faster, hastily applying dotted strokes to the canvas.

In February 1895, he traveled to Norway, to Sandviken, near Oslo, where he painted fjords, Mount Kolsaas and views of the village in which he lives. This cycle of winter landscapes is stylistically reminiscent of works painted around 1870. The following year, Monet makes a real pilgrimage to the places where he painted in previous years; and Pourville, Dieppe, Varezhenville again return to his canvases.

In 1897, the collection of Gustave Caillebotte, who died in 1894, becomes the property of national museums, and many works of the Impressionists finally end up in state collections. In the summer, twenty paintings by Monet are exhibited at the second Venice Biennale.

In the autumn of 1899, in Giverny, he begins the Water Lilies cycle, on which he will work until his death. The beginning of the new century finds Monet in London; the artist again paints the Parliament and a number of paintings united by one motif - fog. From 1900 to 1904, Monet traveled frequently to Great Britain and in 1904 exhibited thirty-seven views of the Thames at the Durand-Ruel Gallery. In the summer he returns to the Water Lilies and in February of the following year participates with fifty-five works in a large exhibition of the Impressionists organized by Durand-Ruel in London.

In 1908, Monet sets off on his penultimate journey: he travels with his wife to Venice at the invitation of the Curtis family, an American friend of the artist John Singer Sargent, where he lives in the Palazzo Barbaro on Canal Grande. Monet decides to stay in the city longer to work, and settles in the Britannia Hotel for two months. He is so fascinated by the atmosphere of Venice, the light effects, the reflections of the water and the reflections of the monuments in it, that he comes there again the following year. To one architect who, during an interview, stated that "The Doge's Palace can be defined as an example of an impressionist rather than gothic architecture”, - Monet replied: “The architect who conceived this palace was the first impressionist. He created it floating on the water, rising from the water, shining in the air of Venice, just as an impressionist painter puts shining strokes on the canvas to convey a sense of the atmosphere. Working on this picture, I wanted to paint exactly the atmosphere of Venice. The palace that appeared in my composition was only a pretext to portray the atmosphere. After all, all of Venice is immersed in this atmosphere. Floats in this atmosphere. This is impressionism in stone.” Returning to France, he continues to work in the workshop on paintings of the Venetian period, which will be exhibited only in 1912, a year after the death of his wife Alice, in the Bernheim Jr. Gallery. The exhibition was preceded by an article by Octave Mirbeau.

From 1908, the artist's vision began to deteriorate; now he devotes all his attention to the garden and continues to work on the Water Lilies series, begun back in 1890. Having diverted the waters of a small tributary of the River Epte, the Rue, which flowed through his land, Monet made a small pond in Giverny. On the mirror surface of the reservoir thus obtained, he grew water lilies, and planted willows and various exotic plants around. To complete the project, a wooden bridge was built over the pond, the idea of ​​which was inspired by oriental engravings. The artist has always been fascinated by flowers and reflections on the water, but this project undoubtedly affected the influence Japanese culture, which has spread in Europe since the middle of the century and is very interested in Monet and his contemporaries. This wonderful corner of the garden is dedicated to the last great works of Monet, a weary artist whose vision problems become more and more serious over the years.

In 1914 his eldest son Jean died. Monet is feeling more and more alone. but continues to work, encouraged by Georges Clemenceau and Octave Mirbeau, who often come to visit a friend.

Thanks to the presence of Monet, Giverny turns into a kind of colony of artists, primarily American, but Monet himself prefers to lead closed image life, assuring that he does not have any “recipe” for young people, which means that he cannot teach anyone anything. He spends all his time in the garden - and writes, writes. The progressive deterioration of his vision no longer allows him to transmit lighting effects with the same accuracy as before. Sometimes, if the canvas seems unsuccessful to him, Monet destroys his work in a rage. And yet he continues to paint, and because of his vision problems, he develops a new approach to painting for himself.

For so many years of work in Giverny, every corner of the garden at any time of the day was imprinted in his mind. And Monet thought it would be interesting to write a series of impressions of the whole, and not from life, but in the studio. In this regard, he decided to build a new large workshop on his estate. The construction of the new premises was completed in 1916: the workshop was 25 meters long, 15 meters wide and the ceiling was two-thirds made of glass. There Monet gets to work. He paints on canvases measuring four meters by two and creates amazing works that in a complex convey the impressions of the kingdom he created, again and again capturing morning fogs, sunsets, twilight and night darkness on the canvas.

In 1918, on the occasion of the armistice, he decides to donate a new series to the state. His friend Georges Clemenceau, who was then Prime Minister, wants to provide Monet with prestigious premises, namely the Orangery Pavilion in the Tuileries Garden. But Monet is still not satisfied with his work and, with the persistence characteristic of his attitude to painting, continues to work until 1926, the year of his death. In addition to a series of eight panels donated to the state, placed in the oval hall of the Orangery in 1927, Monet painted many other works during this period, which were found after the death of the artist in his workshop in Giverny and are now in the Marmottan Museum in Paris. Some of them, not dated, but undoubtedly related to the last period of creativity, in a manner approaching the avant-garde aesthetic currents of the beginning of the century, in particular, expressionism.

In fact, Monet takes to an extreme the process of dematerialization, which has already been outlined in a series of cathedrals. It not only goes beyond the stylistics of Impressionism, but in some ways, perhaps, anticipates the artistic language of non-figurative painting of the period after the Second World War.

The biography is based on the site www.centre.smr.ru