Le musée intime de Monet à Giverny

As an answer to the exhibition at the National Gallery, this book describes Monet’s private museum. Like Picasso, he too kept some of his own paintings, and it is quite a lesson to see how they were scattered after his death. Of the 57 referenced here, some can be found in Paris, Rouen and Honfleur, as well as London, Rome, Zurich, Cleveland, Indianapolis, San Diego, Tokyo. This is a clear sign of the universal character of the painter. But Monet also kept paintings by his friends. Based on photographs and available testimonies, the work recreates the works hung in his room and his bathroom. We almost feel ashamed to discover that Garçon au gilet rouge bu Cézanne (now at the MoMA) hung to the left of the fireplace, the Rue de Paris, temps de pluie by Caillebotte (at the musée Marmottan today) was over the bed andFemme s’essuyant après le bain by Degas (at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena today) used to brighten up the wall next to the chiffonnier.

• Le musée intime de Monet à Giverny, by Sylvie Patin, Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2016, 152 p., €25.