One of the many joys of traveling is getting in touch with your artistic side by discovering famous works of art and their impacts. Impressionism, a famous art movement that took place during the middle to late 19th century in France, still inspires today. Claude Monet, along with Renoir, Manet, and Cezanne, took to the open air of their natural surroundings to challenge the status quo of art during their time.
Today, travelers are able to visit the home and gardens of Claude Monet where he spent most of his twilight days and until his death, painting beautiful works of art that are now showcased in museums around the world. Located only 50 miles outside of Paris in a small town called Giverny, Monet built an incredible garden of tranquil scenes from the Japanese prints he collected. He diverted a river to form a pond, planted willows and bamboo on the shores, filled the pond with water lilies, then crossed it with a wooden footbridge.
Monet was a leader in what we now see today as the Impressionist movement.
A son of a grocer, Monet always saw himself as an artist despite push back from his family. From a young age, Monet loved to sketch the world around him: beaches, boats, and small-town life. He was inspired to paint the world as he saw it so he took to his easel and paint and begun creating his art outdoors. During this time painting outdoors was very much against what was considered acceptable and was viewed as unorthodox. Artists trained and studied their subjects thoroughly in the perfect lighting of a controlled studio setting.
Monet loved to recreate the outdoors and to paint everyday things such as landscapes, seascapes, ladies, gardens, and family picnics while using basic colors. Creating his own garden only seem fitting so in 1883 Monet, along with his wife Alice and their eight children, moved to Giverny. Already a famous artist, Monet happily spent 40 years in Giverny.
Inside his home, Monet picked the colors of the walls and as you can imagine the rooms are painted as bright as his paintings! In his indoor studio, Monet showcased his work to dealers, friends, family, and critics. Today you are able to stand in his studio as Monet did while looking out of his large french windows taking in the sounds and smells of his natural garden. It wasn't uncommon for his close friend and fellow Impressionist, Renoir, to visit Monet in his gardens and paint side by side.
We at Connections by Avra highly recommend taking a walk in Monet's shoes by visiting his garden and home conveniently located right outside of Paris. We have preferred private tour guides that can make you feel as if you are watching Monet himself creating the masterful works of art that inspired us today.
Our travel advisors look forward to hearing from you.
Happy Travels,