The Studios: Extending the Canvas

As Monet's ambitions grew, so did his need for studio space. The original house had a small studio, but by 1897 he had built a second, larger studio in the garden. This was followed in 1916 by the construction of an enormous third studio specifically designed for the monumental Water Lilies panels.

These studios were not retreats from nature but extensions of the garden experience. Large windows and skylights flooded them with natural light. The second studio, in particular, with its walls lined with paintings of the garden, created an immersive environment where the boundaries between inside and outside, art and nature, began to dissolve.

In the studios, Monet would work on paintings begun outdoors, not "finishing" them in the academic sense but synthesizing observations, strengthening color relationships, and pushing effects further than direct observation allowed. The studios became spaces for meditation and memory, where the accumulated experience of thousands of hours in the garden could be distilled into paint.