Claude Monet (1840–1926) said that he was good for two things in his life, “Painting and gardening,” and stated that his garden was his “one and only masterpiece.” Once Monet’s paintings finally started to sell in Paris, he was able to finance the move for his wife, two children, and six stepchildren to the country. Giverny is a small, mountainside village in the region of Normandy in Northern France, about 40 miles from Paris. Monet lived and worked there from 1883 until his death in 1926. The artist’s former home and elaborate gardens, where he produced his famed water lily series, are now the Fondation Claude Monet Museum and open to the public.

Monet had the elongated country home’s exterior painted in a soft cherry pink to echo his blossoming cherry trees and finished with an emerald-green trim. Surrounded by brilliant layers of color in his gardens, sky and earth was his canvas. “Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment,” Monet said.

Wandering through Monet’s gardens is a chance to see how he “painted” with flowers. He favored color harmonies that can be classified as hot (yellow, orange, and red), and cool (blue, purple, and mauve). He designed his gardens with color patterns that he discovered in nature. The blue, pink, and white groupings, for example, might have been inspired by visits to the Mediterranean. Many plants in the garden today are varieties that Monet himself planted.

One of his influences was Japanese design. The arching wood bridge over his pond, and planted bamboo, are Japanese garden design elements. His large water garden is lined with plantings that are reminiscent of his early painting spaces along the Seine River. He created a similar effect by planting layers of blue lavender, blue forget-me-nots, pink meadow rue, pink tamarix, and the purple smoke tree. Together, these flowers recall the early misty mornings of painting by the river. He planted waterlilies in his water garden, which became the subject of some of his most famous paintings.