He created many paintings of his house and gardens, especially of water lilies in the pond, the Japanese bridge, and a weeping willow tree.

Claude Monet lived and painted in Giverny from 1883 to his death in 1926, and directed the renovation of the house, retaining its pink-painted walls.

Colours from the painter's own palette were used for the interior -green for the doors and shutters, yellow in the dining room, complete with Japanese Prints from the 18th and 19th centuries, and blue for the kitchen.

From 1977 onwards, Gérald Van der Kemp, then curator at the Palace of Versailles, and his wife Florence played a key role in the restoration of the neglected house and gardens.

Most of the window panes in both the greenhouse and main house had shattered long ago, and three large trees had begun to grow in the studio.

[5] Walter Annenberg, an American philanthropist that owned Triangle Publications, funded an underpass for easier access to the water garden so that guests would no longer have to go across a busy road.

When Gérald Van der Kemp died in 2001, Florence became the curator of the Fondation Monet and continued renovating the property until her death in 2008.

As one of the most visited tourist destinations in France, strategies around ensuring long term protection for the garden are observed as a matter of protocol.

He says that the lily-ponds remained in a similar state, and need restoration in Monet's color palette in returning the graded cool tones to the flower beds.

He spent years transforming the garden into a living en plein air painting, planting thousands of flowers in straight-lined patterns.

Much of the 2006 BBC docudrama The Impressionists, which is told from Claude Monet's viewpoint, was filmed at the home, gardens, and pond.