Jean-Marie Avisard: Gardener at the Monet Garden

As a gardener in Claude Monet’s Garden at Giverny, Jean-Marie Avisard has a unique insight into understanding the special influences that the landscape and location had on Monet’s work. 

The gardeners strive to keep the property looking as close to how they looked when Monet lived there as possible, with the Claude Normand garden being the most similar. To do this, they use a combination of photographs and Monet’s own paintings as reference. They even get their plants from suppliers that were used by the artist himself. 

“The uniqueness of this garden is the great diversity of flowers to achieve the best nuances of colors that can remind of Monet’s paintings and add the small colorful details that create a full picture.” 

Monet fell in love with this place for many reasons, but one of them is that the daylight in Normandy offered something that not many other places could, allowing him to fully appreciate and capture his garden in vibrant paintings. 

“Although in summer nuances are often lost in the intense midday light, here the cold light preserves and enhances color brilliance. That’s the advantage of Normandy and what Monet cared about most of all.”

One thing became very clear to Jean-Marie through working here: Monet’s passion for his garden was almost as strong as his passion for art. 

“Hadn’t he been a painter, he would have surely been a gardener.”

A film by Camilla Fantinati.

Produced by Paola Desiderio.

Music by Massimo Fantinati.

Translation by Camilla Fantinati.

Executive producers: Laura Christian and Art Parkerson

Special thanks to Sabrina Siarri and Jean-Marie Avisard.