"My studio! But I have never had a studio, and I do not understand that we lock ourselves in a room. To draw, yes; to paint, no".
The name of CLAUDE MONET is often associated with Giverny. However, it is in Vétheuil that the famous painter produced a large number of paintings that can be found today in museums around the world.
When he arrived in Vétheuil, Monet was in a bad personal situation: he was fleeing Argenteuil and his creditors, his wife Camille Doncieux was very ill and - to top it all off - his patron, Emile Hoschédé, was bankrupt.
His life was not easy: 14 people were living in a rather rudimentary house, but this house gave him a great privilege: he had access to the Seine below and could embark on his workshop boat where he painted on the motif. The man was in pain but the painter was fulfilled.
This unhappy period of his life ended with the death of his young wife who is buried in the cemetery of Vétheuil.
It was however a period of great artistic creativity. Monet painted a lot of the village from the hamlet of Lavacourt on the other bank of the Seine, he also painted the church and his inspiration was inexhaustible.
He began to enjoy success with critics and galleries at the end of his stay, but he had to leave the village because he was being pursued by creditors. Fed up with the deadbeat, his landlord chose not to renew his lease in the winter of 1881. And once again, Monet and his entire tribe left first for Poissy before settling in Giverny.
He had the opportunity to return to Vétheuil after 1881. On his boat-workshop, he painted about 200 canvases of which more than fifty were on the church, giving this village and its monument an international reputation.
Monet's house is at number 14, now known as "Rue Monet". Nothing has been preserved from the period, and it is currently decorated in a petit-bourgeois style that has nothing to do with the painter. A visit here is bound to be disappointing.
