Claude Monet house Giverny

Restoring Monet's house and garden

After Claude Monet's death in 1926, his son Michel inherited the house and garden of Giverny. He did not live there and it was Monet's step-daughter Blanche who took care of the property. Unfortunately after the Second World War the house and garden were neglected. In 1966 Michel Monet made the Academie des Beaux-Arts his heir.

In 1977 Gérald van der Kemp was appointed Curator at Giverny. André Devillers, who had the opportunity to go with Georges Truffaut - a distinguished gardener often invited to Monet's table - helped him reconstruct the garden as it was by the time of the master. Many contemporaries of Monet testified also.

Almost ten years were necessary to restore the garden and the house their former magnificence. Not much was left. The greenhouse panes and the windows in the house were reduced to shards after the bombings. Floors and ceiling beams had rotted away, a staircase had collapsed. Three trees were even growing in the big studio.

The pond had to be dug again. In the Clos normand soil was removed to find the original ground level. Then the same flower species as those discovered by Monet in his time were planted.