Monet's Water Lilies - Tapa dura

I have just spent a sunny afternoon alone at Giverny in the utmost serenity ... all through the pages of a new book. Monet's Water Lilies ... is both inspirational and instructive.

Sunday Telegraph

Like the water lilies that dominated Monet's later work, this book is beautiful to look at. However, the text that accompanies the lavish illustrations is equally fascinating.

BBC Gardeners' World

Stunningly photographed, this celebrates the water lily's role as the painter Monet's most central source of inspiration.

Ideal Home

A beautifully presented work detailing the well researched story behind Monet's creation of his now world-famous gardens at Giverny - excellent reading.

Mail on Sunday

A vivid account of the man and his garden

Independent

The story told by Vivian Russell is one of life and death, of peace and war, of love and loss, of despair and revival in the valley of the Seine ... this is a beautiful little book.

Financial Times

Reading this book is a wonderful excursion into Monet's world and garden - read in your garden and feel its serenity wash over you. Enjoyed every minute of it. Excellent value for money.

One for botanists and art lovers alike.

Bursting with fascinating facts, as well as historical details, this beautiful book is sure to make a wonderful present for any art lover.

Bursting with fascinating facts, as well as historical details, this beautiful book charts the development of Monet's garden and his 33-year-long passion for it.

'It took me a long time to understand my water lilies,' Monet wrote of his pond at Giverny. 'I had planted them for the pure pleasure of it, and I grew them without thinking of painting them...And then, all of a sudden, I had the revelation of the enchantment of my pond. I took up my palette. Since then I've had no other model.' The pond became Monet's most enduring motif, the water lilies the most celebrated flowers he ever painted. This book tells the story of their role as a central source of artistic inspiration, bringing exciting insights into Monet's work as a gardener and painter.

Vivian Russell also describes the making of the water garden which, in contrast to the flower garden, was to be meditative and mysterious, in tune with the Japanese aesthetic. She reveals how Monet chose his water lilies from plants bred specially by Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac at his nursery near Bordeaux. Her superb photographs capturing the ephemeral beauty of the flowers, and the way they appear to float on clouds and undulating rushes, portray the changing moods of the pond, complementing Monet's own serene poems to light.