Lilla Cabot Perry: Summers in Giverny

"Haystacks, Giverney" by Lilla Cabot Perry

"Paris was 'abominably full' in the spring of 1889 as thousands of tourists swarmed into the city daily to admire A.G. Eiffel's famous tower and other 'bonanzas' that were part of the Paris Exposition. There were no crowds, however, when the Perrys entered Georges Petit's gallery where one hundred and forty-five 'impressions' from Claude Monet's brush were presented. This exhibition proved to be the revelation of Lilla Cabot Perry's career. It sparked the Perrys' decision to take up residence that summer in Giverny, where Monet recorded sunlight and air and all the transient atmosphere which enveloped the lovely Normandy landscape.

Eighty years later, the memories of that first summer at Giverny were still vivid for Lilla's daughter Margaret Perry, who described in detail the family's first little house 'next to the blacksmith's,' recalling that it had 'no conveniences.' She also confirmed that the family took their meals at the Hotel Baudy, which was filled with American painters. Behind the house was a field across which was Monet's place. In the field were the haystacks made famous by him.'

Theodore Robinson, John Breck and Theodore Butler headed a small colony of artists at Giverny, mostly Americans, who had already discovered the master of French Impressionism and 'were camping on his trail.' Of all the Americans, however, it was the Perrys who developed the closest friendship with Monet during the nine summers they were to spend in Giverny over a twenty-year period from 1889 to 1909. Lilla's own reminiscences about this time in her life, in the form of an informal talk, were first recorded in 1894 and then expanded in 1927, after Monet's death. They provide invaluable insight concerning, in her estimation, 'the worlds greatest landscape artist.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Lilla Cabot Perry: An American Impressionist" by Meredith Martindale.)