Claire Joyes

The Cooking Journals of Claude Monet

Monet's Table

Monet at Giverny

Claude Monet

For forty-three years Monet lived and painted at Giverny and he created there one of the loveliest gardens ever known. For the first time, in this book both the gardens Monet planted and the gardens as they have been lovingly restored by Gérald Van der Kemp are seen together. In his introduction Van der Kemp tells how he brought the badly neglected garden and house back to their original condition. The restored gardens are beautifully photographed by Jena Barhto. In her fascinating essay, Claire Joyes captures Monet's vigor and great love of life, his temper and his famous cuisine. To accompany the essay the Monet family has contributed many period photographs of the irascible old master. The gardens inspired some of Monet's greatest painting -- the "Water Lilies", (the "Nymphea") the "Grand Allée". Seeing them side by side with the gardens as they are now and as they were is a great delight, and with Claire Joyes' text the book is an important aid in understanding Monet both as man and as painter. -- From publisher's description.

Life at Giverny

One of the most influential painters of modern times, Claude Monet lived for half his life in the famous house at Giverny. It was after moving here in 1883 with his future second wife, Alice Hoschedézanne -- other regular guests included Rodin, Whistler, Maupassant, Valéry, and one of Monet's closest friends, the statesman Clemenceau. They came to dine in almost ritual form, first visiting Monet's studio and the greenhouses, then having lunch at 11:30 (the time the family always dined, to enable Monet to make the most of the afternoon light). Tea would later be served under the lime trees or near the pond. Guests were never invited to dinner; because Monet went to bed very early in order to rise at dawn. All the guests were familiar with Monet's rigid timetable. The recipes collected in his cooking journals include dishes Monet had encountered in his travels or had come across in restaurants he frequented in Paris as well as recipes from friends, such as Cézanne's bouillabaisse and Millet's petits pains. For this book, the author Claire Joyes, wife of Madame Monet's great-grandson, has spent years selecting the Monets' favorite recipes and writing a wonderfully evocative introductory text. All of the recipes have been artfully prepared and brought back to life in Monet's own kitchen by master chef Joël Robuchon. Illustrated with sumptuous reproductions of Monet's paintings, spectacular original four-color photographs of Giverny, selected shots of finished dishes, and facsimile pages from the notebooks themselves, this book provides a fascinating and unique insight into the turn-of-the-century lifestyle of one of the world's most celebrated Impressionist painters.

Claire Joyes

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