Monet's Garden in Art

Monet's garden in Normandy was a private haven where domestic pleasure, artistic vision and aesthetic delight converged. Although he modestly told his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, that he gardened 'so that there would be flowers to paint on rainy days', Monet cultivated his garden as a continual source of renewal and creativity. It became as powerful a passion in his life as hs painting - he chose planting schemes as carefully as he chose colours for his palette. The garden was also the inspiration for his art and the subject of some of his greatest paintings. In the paintings of his gardens, from the suburban flower-beds of his first family homes to the grand fantasy of his water lily pond at Giverny, Monet achieved his most personal and passionate expression.

Debra N. Mancoff received her doctorate in Art History from northwestern University and taught at the Art institute of Chicago. She is currently a Scholar in Residence at the Newberry library in Chicago. She writes for The Art Quarterly, The Royal Academy Magazine and The Art Newspaper and is the author of numerous books on European and American art and culture.