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GivernyHe settled further north of Paris in Giverney. He improved the gardens to have a source of flowers to paint. He bought an adjoining piece of property which included a tributary of the river Seine. Having dammed this he built a Japanese style bridge and created a pond |
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. He planted willow trees and waterlilies and irises etc, and did many small paintings of this garden concentrating on isolated features or aspects such as reflected clouds. These paintings became an obsession, culminating in the idea of a series of very large paintings, emphasising the vividness and decorative patterns of the waterlilies and other foliage. Monet was afraid that at seventy four, he was too old to embark on such an ambitious project but he was persuaded to attempt it by his friend Georges Clementeau in 1914. His first step was to build a new large studio which was ready in1916. He decided to donate these paintings to the French government. He had been unhappy about having to sell a lot of his work to American buyers, and saw this as an oppoptunity for his work to stay in France.
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