Follow Your Passion

In 1892 Monet bought a piece of land across the road from his house in Giverny, Normandy for an ambitious project – to create a water garden “for the purpose of cultivating aquatic plants”. Diverting a small stream from the River Epte, he formed a pool and surrounded it with an artful arrangement of flowers, reeds, weeping willow trees, silver birches, and bushes. Over this he built a wooden, arched footbridge in the Japanese style, painted green. The water garden became the focus of Monet’s art for the last 25 years of his life. In a letter, Monet described how he had planted the water lilies for fun - he had never intended painting them, however, once they established themselves they almost became his only source of inspiration. He wrote:  "I saw, all of a sudden, that my pond had become enchanted... Since then, I have had no other model.” Both images of Monet’s gardens would make a lovely pairing. Two views from opposite sides of the pond. In the first view you can see the green Jap