MUSEUM OF IMPRESSIONISM GIVERNY
99 rue Claude Monet
27620 Giverny
Phone : 33 (0)2 32 51 94 65
Fax : 33 (0)2 32 51 94 67
Web site

(JPG) Giverny musee des impressionnismes 2013. Signac, colours of water. From March 29th to July 2nd 2013. Within the framework of the second edition of the Impressionist Normandy festival devoted to the topic of water, the museum of Giverny impressionisms organize an exhibition about « Signac, colours of water ». Like Claude Monet, Paul Signac found a source of constant inspiration in the evocation of water and of her colors. Since the first marines painted on the Norman littoral with a strength and a freedom impressionists until full harbour architectures with the bright colors of post-war period, the description of water and the sky offered to Signac an inexhaustible pretext to multiply the chromatic variations.
Paul Signac (1863-1935)
Voiles et pins, 1896
© Collection particulière


(JPG) The exhibition will approximately count a hundred and twenty works, paintings, watercolours and drawings. It will be supplemented by a rich documentary section (photographs, publications and correspondences) presented with the participation of Archives Signac.
Paul Signac (1863-1935)
Les Andelys, la berge, 1886
Paris, musée d’Orsay. © Musée d’Orsay / Hervé Lewandowski

(JPG) Hiramatsu, the pond. Homage to Monet. From July 13th to October 31st 2013 Japanese art was not without influencing Claude Monet as its collection of Japanese prints attests it which one can today admire in his house with Giverny. The exhibition Hiramatsu, the pond. Homage to Monet will show that, just like the Japanese prints were for the impressionists a way of introducing a new philosophy of space, the paintings of Monet represent a source of creative inspiration pour Hiramatsu Reiji.
Hiramatsu Reiji
Dessin de nénuphars et Jeu
© Hiramatsu Reiji. Collection particulière


(JPG) This Japanese painter, born in Tokyo in 1941, visits Paris for the first time in 1994 and discovers the Nymphea with the Orangery. It is then liked to go on traces of the French Master of which he visits the garden with Giverny. More than twenty tables and folding screens painted according to the traditional technique of the nihonga, combining tradition and modernity, will be joined together. These works will be associated with works of Claude Monet, and a selection of Japanese prints, Hokusai with Hiroshige.
Hiramatsu Reiji
Reflet de nuage doré
© Hiramatsu Reiji. Collection particulière

Monet intime. Photographs of Bernard Plossu June 8th to October 31st, 2012.
A set of 60 photographs carried out at the time of visits with Giverny of Bernard Plossu at two different seasons and different hours, will be joined together. These photographs reveal a glance on the daily newspaper of Monet through images of the interior of the house and gardens taken since the windows.
Bernard Plossu
Jardin de Monet, Giverny, hiver 2010
© Bernard Plossu

Over a century ago, AMERICAN ARTISTS working in the impressionist style formed a colony in Giverny, home to Claude Monet.
The Musee d’Art Americain honors this historic presence and invites visitors to discover American art. Each year, new exhibitions present a selection of art from 1750 to the present.

-  GETTING THERE
Less than one hour from Paris :
A 13 highway, exit Vernon.
By train : line Paris Saint-Lazare/Rouen, stop at the Vernon Station.
Buses, taxis or bike rental available.
-  HOURS
Open May 1st to August 15th,
every day,
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Open July 14th to October 31st except on Monday.
-  ADMISSION
Free entrance on the 1st Sunday of the month.
Free under 7.
Adults : 6.50 € . Child from 7 to 12 : 3,00 €.
-  FACILITIES
Museum shop-Bookstore
Restaurant-Tea-Room
Reservation 33 (0)2 32 51 94 61.

(JPG) Why is there a Museum of American Art in Giverny ? Giverny, A Home for Artists. When the impressionist painter Claude Monet moved to Giverny in 1883, many American artists soon travelled to the village eager to meet him and to experiment with impressionist techniques. They formed an important colony of artists which developed around painters like Lilla Cabot Perry, Theodore Robinson, Frederick MacMonnies, Frederick Carl Frieseke, and other long-term residents.

Daniel J. Terra (1911−1996), Businessman and Patron of the Arts Grandson of an Italian lithographer who had immigrated to the United States, Daniel J. Terra was brought up in Pennsylvania. While studying chemical engineering at Pennsylvania State University, he worked as an apprentice in the family workshop and took out a patent for a chemical component which reduced the ink drying process from ninety six hours to twenty four. This invention revolutionized printing techniques and contributed to the success of Life magazine. In 1940, Daniel Terra and his friend John Lawson founded Lawter Chemicals which developed into a multinational company with offices in twelve countries.

Starting in 1937, Daniel Terra began to collect art, initially eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British landscapes, and later exclusively American art from the Colonial period to World War II. Appointed United States Ambassador-at-Large for Cultural Affairs in 1983, he travelled to France and discovered with enthusiasm Giverny’s rich artistic past. This encounter had an influence on the development of his collection, and he began actively to acquire works painted in the Norman village. Daniel Terra longed to bring these American masterworks back to the village where they were painted. He realized his dream with the inauguration of the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny on June 2, 1992. Each year a large and diverse public discovers the works of the Giverny painters and also learns about American art history from 1750 to the present through the musée’s ambitious exhibitions and programs.

The museum’s activities are sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago. The mission of the Terra Foundation for American Art is to promote, study, acquire, preserve and exhibit original works of art in order to foster a greater knowledge and appreciation of American art around the world. It manages the Terra collection which consists of over seven hundred works of the most important American artists such as John Singleton Copley, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, James A. M. Whistler, Thomas Eakins, Arthur Dove, Charles Demuth and Edward Hopper.

Architecture and Gardens.

French architect Philippe Robert, of the internationally renowned firm Reichen & Robert, designed the museum building, taking into account its cultural projects : the museum had to present the Foundation’s collection as well as ambitious temporary exhibitions. He created spacious, welcoming galleries within a building discreet enough not to disturb the surrounding landscape. The Reichen & Robert firm is known for the rehabilitation of the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris among other prestigious projects.
The Integration of the Museum Building in the Landscape of the Seine Valley. In Giverny the Reichen & Robert firm designed a building which respects the landscape of the Valley of the Seine with its fields, orchards, hedges and walls, hills and meadows. Following the slope of the hillside, the museum extends in a horizontal manner so that its Norman limestone walls topped by planted terraces nestle into the surrounding nature and are partially concealed. In the galleries, northern windows give views of Giverny’s hillside. The architect created a unique atmosphere for the museum through the use of different levels, the subtle juxtaposition of colors and textures, the contrast between light and shadow and the dialogue between the exterior and the interior. The building respects and celebrates its environment : it is a tribute to the landscape, so dear to the impressionist painters.
Inside, the architects concentrated their efforts on the coexistence of areas devoted to different activities such as exhibitions, conferences, concerts, the bookstore and the restaurant. The building is organized around a spacious, bright entrance hall : on its left are three exhibition galleries that extend over different levels to follow the slope of the hillside. The gallery spaces are flexible and adapt to different exhibitions. To the right of the entrance, a restaurant opens onto the garden with a large terrace. On the lower level of the building, an auditorium designed for conferences and concerts can welcome up to 200 people. Direct access through the entrance hall permits its use even after the museum closes. The interlocking spaces and the ease of circulation help visitors “forget” the architecture and instead focus their attention on the works of art themselves.
The galleries benefit from beautiful indirect light reflected off exterior white stone walls, which bring a soft, natural light to the galleries. The light enters through the high windows and is then uniformly diffused by a slightly inclined ceiling. The subtle color of the light in Giverny as well as its seasonal variations forms an integral part of the architectural concept. In each gallery, there is a space which does not receive natural light and is dedicated to the exhibition of drawings, prints and watercolors. The quantity and quality of light from both natural and artificial sources are carefully controlled by a centralized system which takes into account the full range of lighting variations during the course of the day.