Walking in the Footsteps of the Impressionists

When I was eight years old, I went to an art museum with my school class. I saw van Gogh’s Irises painting and several of Monet’s haystack pieces. That day, I decided that art could be more beautiful than real life and that I wanted to learn how to paint.

Ever since then, I have striven to capture the beautiful colors of nature on my canvas.

Erin Hanson Visits Paris

While in Paris, I visited four art museums to absorb the artwork of the impressionist era. The Impressionists were groundbreakers in the art world—they opened the door to creating art about ordinary life and scenes. They paved the way for me to make a living as a landscape painter.

If you’re in Paris, I recommend visiting a lesser-known museum called Musee Marmottan Monet. This museum occupies a home that is filled with three hundred of Monet’s paintings, all donated to the museum by Monet’s remaining heir.

Descending down the stairwell into the basement level, I walked into a wide-open room filled with Monet’s water lily paintings and other beautiful works I had previously only seen in books.

Erin Hanson at Musee de l'Orangerie

Traveling in the Footsteps of the Impressionists

From Paris, I started on a riverboat cruise with fifty of my collectors and fans. We explored many of the places the impressionists painted, such as Rouen (to see “Monet’s” cathedral), Le Havre, Etretat (the Normandy cliffs Monet painted many times), and, of course, Monet’s Garden.

Erin Hanson at Rouen Cathedral, which Monet painted thirty times

I spent two days in Giverny, capturing Monet’s water lilypond and gardens at different times of the day. It was incredible to walk around the bend and see his water lily garden for the first time–it was exactly like walking into one of Monet’s paintings. The reflections of the weeping willow leaves around the pond's edge are exactly like in his depictions!

Water Lilly Reflections by Erin Hanson, 2024

From Normandy, I rented a car and traveled south to Bordeaux. I discovered a water lily farm, which I found out was the very same farm that had supplied Monet with his water lilies. It was like getting another piece of the history puzzle: the biologist Latour-Marliac had found a way to create hybrids between hardy, white water lilies and the colorful (but less hardy) tropical lilies, thereby creating a market for water lilies as ornamental plants. He then brought his new creations to the World’s Fair in Paris, where Monet discovered colorful water lilies for the first time and decided to create his own water lily garden.

The wine country of Bordeaux was a unique experience of winding roads between small vineyards and family farms. From there, I made my way east to Provence to explore the landscapes that inspired van Gogh.

Bordeaux Vineyard by Erin Hanson, 2024

I visited Arles, where van Gogh lived, and Saint-Remy-de-Provence, where I saw his room in the asylum. I learned that a famous wind, the mistral, blows through Provence, which accounts for the movement of the sky and cypress trees van Gogh captured in his paintings. After that, I had to swing by Aix-en-Provence, where Cezanne lived. I stood in the park above his house, where he painted his favorite sideways-sloping mountain so many times.

Since I was in Provence, I spent a few days exploring the olive groves, vineyards, and high plateaus, where endless fields of lavender and sunflowers grow against the dramatic backdrop of the Swiss Alps. 

Sunflowers in Provence by Erin Hanson, 2024

The trip ended in the French Riviera, where I saw turquoise waters and a rocky coastline that reminded me of Carmel-by-the-Sea. The days were long in June–sunrise at 5 AM and dusk at 10 PM. Since I always catch the dawn and sunset golden hours when I’m on photo safari, that didn’t leave much time for sleeping. (At least I caught a few catnaps during the noon hours.) I acquired years’ worth of inspiration from this trip, and I can hardly decide which painting to create next. I feel more connected to the original impressionists than ever before.