Musée des Impressionnismes, Giverny

The entrance to the Musée des Impressionnismes, Giverny.

The main attraction in Giverny is obviously Monet’s house and gardens. But any visitor to Giverny really should not miss the new impressionist museum. The Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny opened its doors 1 May 2009, taking over from the Terra Foundation’s Museum of American Art in Giverny.

One of the ‘rooms’ in the gardens of the Musée des Impressionnismes, Giverny

The state of the art galleries are large and airy, providing powerful display spaces, which is essential to enable the kind of exhibitions of impressionist art this museum proposes to curate. The Museum prides itself in being very well integrated with its garden, which is typical of the gardens of this part of Normandy. The remarkable gardens were designed by the famous landscape artist Mark Rudkin. Using traditional features the garden is divided into ‘rooms’, which are planted with flowers of primary colours, white, blue, red, magenta and yellow, in each.

The new museum is the result of a partnership between the leading regional bodies and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The focus of this new museum is the history of impressionism and its aftermath. And the first exhibition was Le Jardin de Monet à Giverny: l’invention d’un paysage, 1 May – 15 August 2009 (Monet’s Garden in Giverny: Inventing the Landscape). It really was a stunning opening show! The exhibition told the story of Monet’s time in Giverny, and the impact that had on the Impressionist Movement, with some 20 key paintings, 30 historical photographs and numerous other archival documents, including the Musée d’Orsay and Musée Marmottan Monet. If you did not get to see the exhibition, the exhibition catalogue is available, and is essential for any French impressionist enthusiast.

Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1914-1917, Oil on canvas (135 X 145 cm). Private Collection. One of Monet’s water lily paintings that was on show at the opening exhibition at the Impressionist Museum in Giverny, 2009.

To visit the museum’s website, click here.