Monet's House at Giverny
(http://giverny.org/gardens/fcm/visitgb.htm)
Although the couple was enraptured enough to initiate an affair while their significant others were present at Giverny, at first, the development of their relationship, as well as the Water Lilies series, was somewhat strained by Monet’s frequent absence due to his focus on other series paintings. Through the correspondence between Alice and Claude Monet, we may understand the agony that the couple experienced through this separation. In “Monet, Madness, and Melancholy�, Levine said that this “obsessive reworking would keep Monet away from home for weeks on end to the extreme distress of Mme Hoschedé whose recriminations he was always made to regret but which he could never learn to prevent� (Levine “Monet, Madness…� 128). As Levine notes, Monet remained away from home for extended periods compulsively drawn to the idea of truly capturing the different lighting effects on foreign monuments and landscapes. He explains how Alice felt neglected and wrote to Monet complaining of her situation. The strains and lack of affection shown correlate with Monet’s lack of interest in the Water Lilies. However, Levine is wrong in conveying Monet as a very uncaring lover; instead, Monet did express sympathy and guilt for the position in which he placed Alice. Aside from his future paintings, which expressed a great love for Alice, this respect shines through a letter he wrote, when he stated, “If you only knew how much it pains me to see you suffer like this. Your letter this morning upset me so much I wondered whether I shouldn’t come back to you�(qtd. Kendall 100). As this letter shows, the artist recognized his actions and reconsidered his frequent and lengthy lapses away from home. Alice had been successful at invoking guilt within Monet. Through the years, they exchanged similar letters in which Alice gradually convinced Monet to remain at home in Giverny more often. Kendall, author of Monet by Himself, explains, “Alice…continued to occupy the centre of his affections, and the decreasing frequency in his journeys away from home has been seen as evidence of her influence over him� (Kendall 171). Truly, Alice’s letters and sorrow played a huge role in Monet’s choice to spend more time at Giverny; yet, perhaps the greatest motivation for Monet’s increasing frequency at home was the death of Alice’s daughter, Suzanne, in 1899. He felt the need to remain at home to support his wife during these difficult times (Metropolitan 26). As a result, Monet began to paint and capture moments within his water lily pond. Essentially, Alice was responsible for diverting Monet’s interests from series paintings of other locations to his very own home and water lily pond at Giverny as the lure of her love also acted as an impetus towards proliferation of the Water Lilies.