European Masters at the NGV, Melbourne

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Currently on show at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne is a collection of 19th and 20th Century European masters from the permanent collection of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. Besides a remarkable collection of German artists, the exhibition also includes art works by some of the greatest French, Belgian, Dutch and Swiss masters of the 19th and 20th centuries. Chronological themes therefore range from Neo-Classicism, to Realism, Impressionism and Symbolism works, as well as some German Expressionist paintings and sculpture.

But one of the paintings, Claude Monet’s Le déjeuner (1868, pictured here below), will be making an early departure from the Melbourne exhibition on 1 September. The departure is a planned one, because the painting will be included in the Monet retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris, opening on 22 September 2010.

In 1870, Monet submitted Le déjeuner to the Paris Salon, but it was rejected because it was thought to be too radical in the way it portrayed a simple domestic scene.

The Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, Frances Lindsay, said: “The last chance to see this superb painting will be Wednesday 1 September. The Gallery will be open until 9pm to ensure the painting is sent off to Paris in style! We will be holding a very special art after dark event for all Monet fans featuring Melbourne’s very own gypsy brass band The WooHoo Revue followed by a can-can extravaganza.”

Claude Monet, Le déjeuner, 1868. Oil on canvas. 231.5 cm x 151.5 cm. © Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main.

The exhibition European Masters: Städel Museum, 19th–20th Century is on display at NGV International, Melbourne, until Sunday 10 October. The exhibition is open daily from 10 am – 5 pm, and on Wednesday until 9pm: NGV exhibition website. The audio tour of the exhibition can be downloaded from the website.

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