MONET GARDEN

Garden History:
Homage to the 1890’s Gardens of Giverny

Built in the year 2000 and inspired by the gardens at Giverny, France (the home of the famous painter, Claude Monet), the Monet Garden is a relatively new display for the Conservatory. It was first designed and built for participation in the 2000 Flower and Garden Show at Navy Pier. The display was so well received that the Park District decided to move their impressive garden to the Conservatory for permanent display and caretaking.

(Source for this section: Inspired By Nature, page 92.)

The Special People:
The Vision of Claude Monet

When Monet and his family settled at Giverny, France in 1883, he immediately began re-visioning the grounds to suit his artistry and taste. Monet did not like organized or constrained gardens. He combined flowers according to their colors and allowed them to grow quite freely, placing the most common of daisies alongside rather rare varieties of plants. Monet was also known for his “paintbox” flower beds, where he experimented with different color combinations. In the spring, summer, and fall, our Monet Garden, like its namesake, displays a variety of sunflowers, nasturtiums, poppies, peonies, irises and other colorful blooms in the “paintbox” fashion. Also, like in Monet’s Giverny Garden, the central alley is covered by iron arches on which climbing plants can grow. Monet said “I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” In the tradition of Claude Monet, who made his gardens the subject of several paintings, many local and visiting artists find their own colorful inspiration in the Conservatory’s Monet Garden.