Impressionist painter Claude Monet spent 43 years at Giverny, creating gardens and painting them for his most well-known work. Visitors can now tour the site, which has been recreated to exactly replicate the foliage, flowers, and lighting conditions Monet painted. In this illustrated 8x9.5" book, Holmes, a garden historian, gives many horticultural details on the garden's plants, and presents many quotes from Monet and his contemporaries. In addition to color paintings, the book offers b&w historical photos of the artist in his studio and his gardens, plus contemporary color photos of locations in the recreated gardens, for a total of about 150 illustrations. The book is distributed in North America by ACC Publishing Group. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)