The artist's garden at Giverny

Claude Monet · 1900

Rows of irises in purple and pink run diagonally under the trees, and sunlight falls through the leaves in patches. At the end of the path, almost hidden, stands the painter's own house.

The story behind the painting

Claude Monet painted The Artist's Garden at Giverny in 1900, the year he turned sixty. By then he had produced an immense body of work and had become extraordinarily successful and famous. He had been shaping this garden since the end of 1883 and would keep working on it until the end of his life; it became the subject of many paintings over his last thirty years. The same year, 1900, he set out on two major projects: a series of the River Thames in London and a series of his water gardens at Giverny, including waterlilies. The canvas, about 81.6 by 92.6 centimetres, is now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

What to look for

Follow the flowers first. Rows of irises in many shades of purple and pink are set diagonally across the picture, drawing your eye deep into the scene. Above them stand trees, and here is the key: the leaves let dappled light through, so the colour of each flower shifts between sun and shade. A purple in the light is not the same purple in shadow, and Monet paints that difference. Beyond the trees, look for a glimpse of his house. There is hardly any bare ground to be seen, which suits a gardener who, the sources say, hated bare earth. The whole surface is alive with flowers and light.

Meaning and intent

Monet's garden had firm rules. It was essentially a garden of perennials, brightened by annuals. He avoided dark flowers, could never get enough of blue, disliked single flowers except in roses and herbaceous peonies, and loathed variegated foliage. In other words, he planted the garden much as he painted, choosing colours and textures with an artist's eye. By this time, according to the scholar William Seitz, Monet was analysing what he saw so closely that subject, sensation and the painted object had all but become one. In this picture the garden he made and the painting he made from it seem to merge into the same act of looking.

Legacy

The Artist's Garden at Giverny has travelled widely. Besides France, it has been shown in Australia, Belgium, Korea, Italy, Japan, Switzerland and the United States, carrying Monet's private world to visitors around the globe. In 2023, while on display in Stockholm, it was smeared with red paint by climate activists seeking to pressure the Swedish government over greenhouse gas emissions. The painting also stands at a turning point: the year it was made, Monet began the water garden series that would lead to his famous waterlilies. Here, in the irises and filtered sunlight, we see the garden that would occupy him for the rest of his life.

Did you know?

Painted in 1900, the year Monet turned sixty.
Monet developed the Giverny garden from the end of 1883 until the end of his life.
Held at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris; 81.6 × 92.6 cm.

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