Analysis of Garden in Giverny by Claude Monet

Garden in Giverny was painted by Claude Monet in 1900. This piece has many impressionist characteristics in it such as his use of many small brushstrokes, especially visible in the water and sky. Impressionist artwork is also characterized by painting the change of light in a day such as the periods surrounding sunrise and sunset.

This painting depicts a colorful flower garden, with the flowers all blooming. We see two paths: one on either side of the flower bed pictured in the center of the painting. There is a concentration of sunlight in the center portion of the middle flower bed, producing flowers that are a lighter shade of pink with bright green stems. It appears as though the flowers are leaning to the right of the picture which leads onlookers to believe that the sun is in the direction east, signifying that a new day is beginning. The background of the image depicts trees of different hues of green and red.

This painting by Claude Monet is a depiction of his personal garden located at Giverny. This piece was painted in the final years of Monet’s life, so it was likely completed because he was not as able to stray far from his house to find different scenes which he could paint. The significance behind this picture he painted was that Monet, always being a nature lover, decided to make his own, personal garden: Gardens at Giverny. He painted many different works of his garden. These included different scenes during different parts of the year, depicting different stages of his garden’s growth. The meaning behind this painting shows the meticulousness and care behind Monet’s garden which he spent hours upon hours caring for.

This piece of art makes me feel calmed looking at it because of all of the colors that are used in the blooming flowers to demonstrate the season of spring. The trees in the background, with red hues portray a scary or frightening feeling, almost as if the flowers are safe and the woods are dangerous. I chose this piece of artwork because the color lavender immediately caught my eye, seeing as it is my favorite color, and because of the bright colors, I was more drawn to it as compared to one of his night time paintings featuring a dark color palette.

The impact of art today is very contrasting to that of the common person during this time period. This is because in today’s society, finding a scene that matches the natural characteristics of this image is a very difficult task, especially in the natural environment today. During this time period, gardens as such were more common, and it was easier to find a field of natural wildflowers blooming like so. Today, art is used as an escape from reality and all of its terrors, but art then was used for expression and informing audiences of different occurrences whether it be through exaggeration or realism.

Based off of this piece, and others Monet painted, the conclusion can be drawn that art is seemingly based off of life. Although the garden in this image may seem too “picture perfect”, it still has some natural elements that were not exaggerated, such as Monet’s choice in lighting. Also, because of the natural elements in this image, the conclusion can not be drawn that life imitates art because in this circumstance at least, the image is based off of life itself.