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Key figures

Origin and history

The Giverny Impressionism Museum is a public cultural cooperation institution (EPCC) located in Giverny, Normandy, on the eastern edge of the Eure department. This place is inseparable from Claude Monet, master of Impressionism, who lived there from 1883 and painted his famous Nympheas. The village, which became a high place of this movement, attracted American painters such as Theodore Robinson or Dennis Miller Bunker, forming an artistic colony inspired by Norman landscapes.

The museum replaced in 2009 the American Art Museum, opened in 1992 thanks to Daniel J. Terra, collector and patron. He had wished to repatriate American works created in the region to Giverny. The building, designed by architects Philippe Robert and the Reichen and Robert agency, quietly integrates into the landscape, with limestone walls and vegetated terraces. The garden, labeled "Remarkable Garden" and created by Mark Rudkin, dialogue with architecture to pay tribute to nature, a theme dear to Impressionists.

The museum organizes two temporary exhibitions a year, from the end of March to the beginning of November, exploring impressionism in its geographical diversity and influences, until its extensions in the 20th century. It benefits from prestigious loans, including the Musée d'Orsay, the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Marmottan Monet Museum. His acquisition policy, which is still modest, is based on donations such as Dominique Ledebt (works by Maximilien Luce) and descendants of artists, including Claire Denis, granddaughter of Maurice Denis.

In 2014, the museum welcomed its millionth visitor. It attracts between 139 000 and 242 000 visitors annually, of which 76% are individual and 18% are international. Its funding is provided by the Normandy region, the departments of Eure and the Seine-Maritime, as well as by scientific partnerships with the Musée d'Orsay and the Terra Foundation. These institutions actively support its exhibitions and acquisitions, such as the painting La Seine à Vernon by Pierre Bonnard in 2019, financed in part by a crowdfunding campaign.

Close to the house and gardens of Claude Monet, managed by the eponymous foundation, the museum maintains a strong link with this place of memory. The exhibitions and the visit of the gardens enrich each other, offering an immersion in the universe that inspired the impressionists. The Society of Friends of the Museum, founded in 2014, also contributes to enriching its collections and promoting its outreach.

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