The roots of Bordman’s passion began with her mother, Dame Helen Rappel Bordman (1932-2020), one of a small group of dedicated Americans responsible, alongside French authorities and benefactors, for the renaissance of Monet’s garden and home at Giverny. Monet lived and worked at Giverny from 1883 to 1926, but the property was bequeathed to his son after his death and ultimately left to ruin in 1947. The meticulous restoration process began in 1974 when the Institut de France, which inherited the property, asked art historian Gérald Van der Kamp (1912-2002) to restore the desolate home and gardens of Claude Monet. American philanthropist Lila Acheson Wallace, at the suggestion of Metropolitan Museum Curator, Charles Moffett, supported this effort with generous funds, and her friend Helen Bordman joined their vigorous campaign to rescue this cultural treasure for all to visit and enjoy.
Throughout the next years and for decades after, Dame Bordman helped to raise significant financial support to grow, maintain and operate Fondation Claude Monet in Giverny, leading the development of a creative volunteer program that has included historians, gardeners and artists alike. Dame Bordman kept an apartment at Giverny for four decades, with her daughter a frequent visitor. Drawing upon these special ties to Giverny, Aileen Bordman came to know every square inch of the garden at every time of day. Dame Bordman was awarded the Chevalier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, by the French Minister of Culture in 2017 in recognition of her great contribution to French culture, a rarity for an American. In honor of Claude Monet and her mother’s dedicated service to Giverny, Bordman now carries the baton, bringing the world of Claude Monet to all.
In addition to her work as a photographer, Aileen Bordman is an author, filmmaker, and entrepreneur. Bordman’s two best-selling books, Monet’s Palate Cookbook: The Artist & His Kitchen Garden at Giverny (Gibbs Smith, 2015), with a foreword by Meryl Streep, and Everyday Monet (HarperCollins, 2018), feature her photography as well as extensive information about the artist and his life.
Bordman’s acclaimed documentary film Monet’s Palate – A Gastronomic View from the Gardens of Giverny, examines the connection between fine art and fine cuisine as seen through the eyes of Claude Monet. Meryl Streep's opening narration takes the viewer through the region of Normandy and Monet's home garden. The film includes interviews with art historian Joachim Pissarro, Chefs Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud, and Roger Vergé. Screened from Cannes to New York, the film was featured during the exhibition, Monet’s Garden, held at the New York Botanical Garden in 2012 and was distributed nationally by American Public Television on PBS, where it can still be viewed.
Bordman’s work has been featured in Forbes Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Times, and USA Today, among other international publications. Bordman has lectured about Claude Monet and the gardens at Giverny at museums and cultural venues throughout the United States, including the 92nd Street Y, Kimbell Art Museum, the Nassau County Museum of Art, The Norton Museum of Art, and The New York Botanical Garden.
