Fleurs de Giverny

Claude Monet, one of the Impressionist movement’s foremost exponents, moved with his family to Giverny in Normandy, in 1883. The garden he created there over many years was more than a source of inspiration – it was a work of art in its own right. Visiting in 1907, Marcel Proust wrote of the “delicate water lilies depicted by the master in sublime canvases for which this garden […] is a kind of living, preparatory sketch.” Christine Henry was invited to this exceptional place, today the Museum of Impressionism, for the creation of this carré. Its composition is inspired not only by the infinitely rich colors of the garden’s flowers, but also by Monet’s carefully planned arrangement of forms, color harmonies, shadows and reflections. From the gentle curve of the Japanese garden’s bridges and the broad paths in the walled Normandy garden, to the soaring verticals of the bamboo and the delicate leaves of the weeping willow, motifs from the ceramics decorating Monet’s kitchen or kimonos evoking his fascination with Japanese art are surrounded by the geometry of flower beds and waterfalls. This carré is a tribute from the House of Hermès to an artist’s garden, and to the Foundation that ensures it lives on today.