Vernon is adjacent to Giverny, which is a small village famous for being the home of Claude Monet for several years. We took a bus to Giverny and spent a few hours at the garden and village, which was very pretty, it being in flower with spring flowers and the water-lily pond looking nice and all. Lovely weather appears to follow us and days have been bright and cool - but warm in the sun.
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| Water-Lily Pond at Monet's Garden |
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| The bridge over the water-lily pond |
A gallery of French impressionist painters was there in Giverny close to the famous house and gardens and took our attention. We were bemused by the fact that the gallery didn't actually have any Monet paintings and I was interested in having a look at a few to see if his popularity was backed up by any actual substance. I lie slightly in the fact that it did display a single Monet work, but likely only the one the gallery could afford because it was frankly not very good, and the paintings of other artists whose names I knew (Manet, Renoir, Pissarro) and those I didn't, were clearly superior. Odd that tickets to a gallery was sold in conjunction with tickets to Monet's garden and house but actually contained only a work that appeared to be produced between afternoon tea and supper by dipping a croissant into a bottle of paint mixed with white wine and applying liberally to a board ... but what would a philistine like I know? (Later evidence at the Rouen and Caen galleries show what the hype and fame of the man really is about ... but not this token hanging and sham tourist seduction). It is, to me, somewhat comforting that not every work by a clear genius is actually good. Perhaps by reverse extension, is it possible that we non-geniuses could actually produce something that is good?
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