MONET and HIS GARDENS in GIVERNY, FRANCE - PART 1

For NONFICTION BOOK CLUB we are reading MAD ENCHANTMENT: Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by ROSS KING - 2/3 of the way through the book I felt compelled to look again at the photos I took when I visited in 2008 and 2015. Naturally, now I want to share some of them with you.

But first, a few excerpts from the book that will give you some insight into CLAUDE MONET's feelings:

Pg 137
     "I'm in a state of impossible anxiety.  I've ruined the good pieces by trying to improve them and now I have to try to fix it at all costs..... For the time being, I can't leave here and I can't see anyone."

Pg 178
     The visit marked Gimpel's first meeting with Monet, whose appearance and manner left a vivid impression on him. He appeared before his guest wearing a "big pointed straw peasant's hat" and then, without further ado, launched into a long monologue that - if Gimpel recorded it faithfully - amounted to an artistic manifesto tinctured with personal eccentricities.  "Ah, gentlemen," he greeted them, "I don't receive when I'm working, no I don't receive. When I'm working, if I'm interrupted, it finishes me, I'm lost. You'll understand, I'm sure, that I'm chasing the merest sliver of color. It's my own fault, I want to grasp the intangible. It's terrible how the light runs out, taking color with it. Color, any color, lasts a second, sometimes three or four minutes at most. What to do, what to paint in three or four minutes? They're gone, you have to stop. Ah, how I suffer, how painting makes me suffer! It tortures me. The pain it causes me!"

Pg 195
     "I am unhappy," the painter told his guests, "very unhappy." Surprised, they asked him why, to which he replied with his customary lecture about the mental horrors of a man's reach exceeding his grasp - how painting made him suffer, how he was unsatisfied with all his previous works, how "each time I begin a canvas I hope to produce a masterpiece, I have every intention of it, and nothing comes out that way. Never to be satisfied - it's frightful. I suffer greatly."

MONET'S GARDENS in GIVERNY are a sight to BEHOLD. When you walk by the LILY PADS and over the JAPANESE BRIDGE, you can SEE and FEEL why MONET was inspired to paint, yet tortured to reach perfection. I've visited three times - twice in September and once later in the Fall. The vegetation and colors were quite different each time.

FIRST his colorful HOME........

And his CAREFULLY PLANNED GARDENS.......

His JAPANESE BRIDGE covered with wisteria.........

AND, his MAGNIFICENT WATER LILIES.......

Here is a very short (less than 3 min) YOUTUBE video of MONET painting his WATER LILIES. I recommend that you enlarge the video to full screen. Notice the length of the ASH on his cigarette as he is obviously totally consumed with his craft.

I have more to share - the GORGEOUS Bed and Breakfast where we stayed in GIVERNY and TREASURES throughout the VILLAGE. Please look for my next post - MONET and HIS GARDENS in GIVERNY, FRANCE - PART 2.


JOAN