Giverny & Monet’s Poppy Fields

Claude Monet, Poppy Field (Giverny). 1890-91. Oil on canvas. 24 1/16″ x 36 5/8″ (61.2 x 93.1 cm). © Kimball Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago.

Claude Monet is not only well known for his paintings of the water lilies on the ponds he created in his Garden at Giverny, he also painted numerous fields of poppies, while living in Argenteuil and later in Giverny. No visit to Giverny in June or July should miss the many poppy fields surrounding the village.

One of the most well known of all of Monet’s paintings, mainly because it is the most reproduced of all his paintings, is a field of poppies he painted while living in Argenteuil; a painting that was included in the First Impressionist Exhibition in Paris of 1874.

The painting above is of a field to the south of Giverny. Fields of poppies are typical in Normandy, and if you visit Giverny during June and July you will be able to see some fields of poppies yourself and experience for yourself what it is that captivated Monet. I took the photograph below at the beginning of July, under quite a dramatic sky. This particular field lies beyond the car park and the picnic area, to the south of Giverny and Monet’s garden.

The following two paintings by Monet were made from a vantage point above his house, Le Pressoir, in 1885 and 1886 respectively, shortly after he arrived in Giverny with his family, and before he got going with constructing his ponds.

Claude Monet, Champs de coquelicots à Giverny. 1885. Oil on canvas. 60 x 73 cm. © Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. The Mellon Collection of French Art.
This was one of the first of Monet’s paintings to be purchased by an American collector, having received widespread recognition at its USA premiere in 1886. It is one of four paintings of poppy fields made by Monet in the summer of 1885 in Giverny.

Claude Monet, La Meule de foin (Haystack). 1886. Oil on canvas. 61 x 81 cm. © State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

Claude Monet, Champs de coquelicots à Giverny. 1885. Oil on canvas. 65 x 81 cm. © Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Céramique, Rouen.
Another of the four paintings of poppy fields in Giverny painted in the summer of 1885. This one is taken from the plains to the south of Giverny, looking towards the village.