Claude Monet, a life well lived
Claude Monet was born in 1840 into a reasonably affluent family. In accord with his father’s desires, he would have seemed destined to enter into the family grocery business. Claude, artistically talented and focused from an early age had, to put it mildly, other plans.
Claude Monet became one of the chief architects of the Impressionist artistic movement. After many years of “starving artist” status, he did become a success in his lifetime. This success enabled him to first rent, and then purchase what would become his home and studio base. This home, in Giverny France was a former cider-making facility and it was not until he could purchase the home outright, that he could truly adapt it to his desires. This included a painting studio and the very famous gardens. After diverting a river to swell his pond to the size he desired, he filled that pond with the water lilies, flowering plants that his dream-like paintings would memorialize for all time. Over that pond was a bridge, an homage to those he admired in Japanese ukio-e prints. Unlike those bridges however, his bridge was painted a not very traditional green blue.
His one painting studio became two and near the end of his life a massive third studio was added that measured 40 by 80 feet, with a soaring 50-foot ceiling. This is coincidentally the same height as our Studio A at Armory Studios NY, where Monet the Immersive Experience has recently been installed, after a successful 16-month run with the Van Gogh Expo. That largest studio was required for the creation of Monet’s Grand Decoration, a series of paintings which drawled his earlier works and which included the water lily series. He painted many versions of flowers, cathedrals, bridges, and trains, creating series much like those of ukio-e artists Utamaro and Hiroshige among others.
Known to have a prickly personality, Monet was nonetheless a gracious host at his home in Giverny, where he lived for over 40 years, that is when he could be torn away from his first love, painting.
If the studio was where guests marveled at works in production and older works in storage, it was in his kitchen that they dined sumptuously. There they enjoyed hearty, locally inspired dishes and wines, which of course were French, like his beloved Sancere.
His hospitality was influenced by his passion for art, nature, and gardening. The dining room wore a vibrant yellow tone that goes from furniture, to curtains and walls decorated with more than 50 prints by inspirational Japanese prints. The table could accommodate up to 14 diners and the fire place’s hood was often polished to a luster that made guest’s eyes squint and illuminated their plates of Périgord truffles and foie gras from Alsace, lobster, fish, duck and in fall, ceps, a meaty mushroom. Monet ate heartily at Giverny, perhaps to make up for his years of privation. In any case he was know to eat prodigious amounts of food and encouraged his guests to join him in his feasting.
Even during the First World War, the luxuries, for the most part, flowed due to Monet’s connections with powerful friends and patrons. Chief among those friends was Georges Clemenceau, nicknamed the Tiger, who was a French politician and journalist. He led the French government from 1917 to 1920 and did much for the French victory during the First World War. The two met when they were young men but that friendship matured and blossomed as they aged, like a fine wine. These best friends shared a love for art and beauty and Clemenceau’s visits to Giverny were welcomed escape from the ravages of both war and politics. Other diners at Giverny included Monet’s beloved extended family, other famous artists, performers, business leaders and wealthy patrons.
So, when you visit Claude Monet The Immersive Experience with your friends and family, after you have been mesmerized by the immersive display, virtual reality tour and re-created garden and atelier, please visit our Armory Lounge NY and there, celebrate the life and work in classic Monet style, by breaking bread with fellow art lovers and raising a glass to beauty.