A trip to Monet’s garden in Giverny is the way to celebrate spring. This is the best season to roam the French countryside and visit the famous Impressionist painter’s house just an hour from Paris.
Giverny has a special place in both French and American art history. This month the Musée Americain’s ambitious show “From a Colony to a Collection” highlights the presence of an American artists colony in Giverny with a display of paintings, documents and photographs. Claude Monet lived there from April 1883 to his death in 1926. This is where he painted his celebrated water-lily series inspired by the pond and bridge setting he created in his garden. By 1890 Monet’s fame had spread across the Atlantic and growing numbers of stateside artists came to stay in the village for extended periods of time. They sought inspiration from the Impressionist patriarch, and studied the shimmering light and misty landscapes of the surrounding countryside, made famous by his compositions.
A number of expatriate painters and their families bought homes in and around Giverny and remained there until the outbreak of World War I. Some sources suggest that at one point there may have been as many as 60 American artists living in the vicinity. Like their French counterparts, they were drawn to subjects taken from everyday life. Hence paintings by “expats” like Louis Ritman, Mary Fairchild MacMonnies Low or Lila Cabot Perry depict the raising of young children, card games and garden parties as well as the luminous open-air landscapes associated with Monet.
Theodore Robinson was one of the first American artists to settle in Giverny and become a member of Monet’s close circle of friends. In 1892, he produced his landmark “Wedding March” dedicated to Monet’s step-daughter, Suzanne Hoschedé, who married the American painter, Theodore Butler. This vital exhibit is included in this thematic show — along with four superb works by Mary Cassatt and several pieces by Sargent and Whistler. The Musée Américain boasts over 1 000 items from the Terra bequest that trace the development of American art from the Colonial period to the modern movements of the mid-20th century. This overview finishes with a number of modern examples by Georgia O’Keeffe, Reginald Marsh, Maurice Prendergast and Max Weber. However, most of Daniel and Judith Terra’s collection highlights the close links between French and American painting, by paying tribute to the tremendous influence of Claude Monet on the transatlantic artists who lived and worked in Giverny toward the end of late 19th century.
“D’une colonie à une collection: le musée d’art américain fête ses dix ans” Mar 30 to June 16, Tue-Sun 10am to 6pm, Musée d’Art Américain Giverny, 99 rue Claude Monet 27620 Giverny, tel: 02 32 51 94 65, 5E/4E. (By train: from Gare St.-Lazare to Vernon — then by bus to Giverny. By car: via route A13 to Vernon)
