6 Giverny

Chapter 6 Giverny Monet first saw Giverny in April. Apple trees were in bloom and wild flowers sparkled in the fields. Monet was on a train, but he got off. Right beside the main road was a big farmhouse for rent. It was beautiful. The walls were pink; it had a slate roof and gray shutters. At each end of the house was a low barn with a dirt floor. The house came with two acres of land that included an apple orchard and a walled garden. A path led down to the railway and, on the other side of the tracks, was a small river. It was an ideal spot for a painter. Monet could see willow trees and all sorts of plants along the river, and lines of tall poplars marking the edges of meadows. "I can produce masterpieces here," Monet said.

He first rented the house. (Later on he bought it.) The family came with all their furniture and Monet's boats. He now had four—the studio boat, two rowboats, and a skiff. He moored the boats at a place called Nettle Island. It was an easy walk from the house to Nettle Island.

Monet turned one of the dirt-floored barns into a studio. Later, he built a second studio that was much larger and had a skylight. He planted a vegetable garden. It was the job of the children to weed and water it. He tore out the hedges around the gardens. They looked too neat and orderly. He also began work on a big flower garden. (Irises were his favorite flower.) He planted climbing roses on metal arches over the walkways and filled the flower beds with all sorts of plants and flowers. He wanted to make sure there was something blooming from early spring until late fall.

Next to painting, the garden at Giverny became the most important thing in his life. It, too, was a work of art. Monet was a man of habit. He got up every day at sunrise, ate some bread and sausage, and set out with his palette and paints and easel in a wheelbarrow. He wore a beret and wooden shoes like the local farmers wore. He came back home for lunch. It was always served at 11:30 A.M. on the dot. After the meal, he would drink a cup of coffee in his studio and sometimes a glass of brandy as

well. Then he went back to paint outside if the light was still good.

When he was pleased with his work, the whole family was happy. If a picture didn't turn out the way he wanted it to, he got rid of it. Monet had a terrible temper. Once he was painting on his studio boat and got so mad at the way the picture looked that he threw the canvas in the river and his paints and brushes after it. He swore that he would never paint again.