Creating Paradise: The Early Years

The house Monet rented came with two acres of walled garden, an orchard, and a small farmyard. For an artist who had spent years moving from one rented accommodation to another, often fleeing creditors, the stability of a long-term home was revolutionary. With Alice Hoschedé and their combined eight children, he set about transforming both house and garden into a total work of art.

The early years at Giverny were marked by financial struggle but also by tremendous creative energy. Monet immediately began reshaping the garden, despite having limited funds. He removed the formal box hedges that divided the space, opened up vistas, and began planting flowers in masses of single colors—innovations that went against prevailing French garden design, which favored formal geometric patterns and mixed plantings.

His approach to gardening mirrored his painting technique. Just as he placed pure colors side by side on canvas to create optical mixing, he planted flowers in bold blocks of color that would interact visually. He thought like a painter even when holding a spade, considering how colors would harmonize or contrast, how plants of different heights would create rhythm and movement, how the garden would look not just from one viewpoint but as one moved through it.