Another Normandy Invasion : The Battle for Musee Americain

There were many occasions, American art philanthropist Daniel J. Terra recalled, when he nearly gave up his dream of building an American art museum in this Norman village, 50 miles west of Paris, famed as the country home and studio of Impressionist Claude Monet.

For six years, Terra and his wife, Judith, had battled the French bureaucracy, a vacillating village council and a bitter lawsuit against them filed by a local resident for the right to build their low-slung museum on a grassy hillside once used as a plein-air setting for Monet and his many American disciples.

“There were at least four times when I was ready to give up and never come back to France unless I had to for business,” said Terra, 80, a wealthy collector of 19th-Century and Modern American art.

The French government, if not openly hostile, was yawningly indifferent. The indifference continued up to the very last moment, when not a single minister of government deemed it important enough to attend the gala opening night dinner held on Monday for the $25-million Musee Americain Giverny--despite the fact that the museum is, essentially, a grand homage to the influence of French art on American painters.

France’s first lady, Danielle Mitterrand, was on the guest list but backed out at the last minute, citing other commitments at the Elysee Palace. Culture Minister Jack Lang, a publicity magnet who seldom finds any arts event too small to merit his presence, dispatched an underling who read a statement.

To make matters worse, several nearby neighbors of the museum participated in the gala by draping their homes with banners protesting a parking lot that Terra had built in the village and complaining about tourist buses that clog their streets and pollute the air.

Still, despite the protests, the snags and the snubs, Terra looked upon the finished work by French architect Philippe Robert and found it good. “We are here to stay,” he announced with characteristic enthusiasm.

Inside the museum is an impressive exhibition, drawn mostly from Terra’s own collection, of some of America’s finest late 19th-Century artists: John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, Frederick Frieseke, Mary Cassatt and Theodore Robinson.

The inaugural exhibition, “Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865-1915,” could not have been shown in a more fitting locale. Along with Grez-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau, and the Brittany seacoast towns of Pont-Aven and Concarneau, the village of Giverny had been one of the meccas for 19th-Century American artists and expatriates.

Although Monet did not encourage them, they came in droves, the men growing beards and pot bellies until they were barely distinguishable in appearance--as well as artistic style--from their guru. At one point near the turn of the century, the majority of the homes in Giverny were owned by Americans. Several of the paintings in the exhibition, which will remain here for an indefinite period, feature pastoral scenes of Giverny. The connections weren’t just made on canvas.

The most famous work by American artist Robinson (1852-96), “The Wedding March,” depicts the betrothal of another American artist pilgrim, Theodore Butler, to Monet’s stepdaughter, Suzanne Hoschede.

A painting by Frieseke is titled “Tea Time in a Giverny Garden,” and portrays the artist’s wife in a big straw hat, taking her afternoon tea. A work by artist John Leslie Breck (1860-99), “Autumn, Giverny (The New Moon),” shows a shepherd on a grassy field that is the precise site of the new museum.

Among other important works are “Summertime,” a boating scene by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), and “Garcon Sur La Plage,” a boy at the seashore by John Singer Sargent (1836-1923).

The effect of seeing exhibited works by artists who used the same surrounding light and landscapes as those outside the museum is odd, thrilling. “We sought to capture the relation of light, nature, art and architecture,” said architect Robert. “It means that the paintings are shown in the same light in which they were created.”

Terra--a chemical engineer who made a living in the Depression as a singer and dancer in speak-easies and who made his fortune from a patented printing technique--is a former campaign finance chairman for former President Ronald Reagan. To reward him for his fund-raising efforts, Reagan named Terra ambassador-at-large for cultural affairs, a position he held until 1988.

Terra and his second wife, Judith, came up with the idea for the Giverny museum in 1986, just as they were preparing to open their Terra Museum of American Art in downtown Chicago.

No longer a mecca for artists, Giverny in recent years has become an important destination for art-loving tourists. They come to see the Monet house and gardens, renovated with $20 million raised mostly in the United States, and opened in 1980. Last year, the Maison Claude Monet, which belongs to the Institut de France, had 350,000 visitors in its seven-month season (April 1-Oct. 31).

A friend in Giverny called the Terras in 1986 to say that the home, which borders Monet’s and once belonged to American artist Lilla Cabot Perry (1848-1933), was for sale. Terra immediately bought the large, walled country home for one of his residences and began toying with the idea of turning it into a small museum for American art, especially art that had been inspired and created during the Monet era.

When they discovered that the home was impractical as a museum, the couple decided to build a new museum a few hundred yards down the street on Perry property.

Thus began the first of many battles with the villagers over what kind of museum could be built here. Judith Terra favored a design modeled on those by the late American architect Louis Kahn, designer of the famous Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Tex.

Dutifully, the Terras, their architects, translators and lawyers, went before the Giverny village council on numerous occasions, presenting by Daniel Terra’s count “eight completely different designs” for a museum, all of which were rejected as too intrusive.

What was finally accepted is essentially an underground museum with Kahn touches, such as the indirect natural lighting that filters in through slits in the concrete walls.

Nevertheless, the villagers are not completely happy. Their hamlet of only 450 full-time residents is already overwhelmed by Maison Claude Monet traffic. By Terra’s own estimate, the new museum could boost the annual flood of visitors to more than 500,000. To control congestion, some residents wanted the local government to construct a parking lot outside town but close enough for art pilgrims to trek up the hill on foot.

When Terra built his own parking lot in the center of town, a citizens’ protest committee was formed. That explained the banners--”Outside Parking=Better Life”--draped from the roofs of surrounding houses at the opening.

“We are not against the new museum or Mr. Terra,” explained Fernand Morin, 65, a retired car salesman who lives across the street. “It’s just a question of parking.”

Musee Americain Opens

A new museum dedicated to American artists (such as Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt) who were influenced by Claude Monet opens today next to Monet’s house in Giverney.