The Impressionists by Night in Rouen

One of the many events planned for Rouen as part of the Normandie Impressionniste 2010 festival this summer is ‘Les Nuits Impressionnistes‘. The Impressionists by Night is a spectacular combination of sound and light, modern technology and cultural heritage, a Cathedral and a Fine Art Museum.

The Musée des Beaux Arts in Rouen has the biggest French collection of impressionist art outside of Paris. Its facade is therefore a fitting backdrop for a sound and light show that tells the story of the Impressionist movement in the streets of Rouen this summer.

If what we saw in 2009 is anything to go by, this will be an attraction not to miss. The show lasts about 20 minutes, and the few photographs below give an impression of what to expect. Unfortunately, I only took still photographs – but as you can see from some of these photographs the show is not simply a matter of images projected onto the front of a building.

Not only will you recognise some very well known impressionist paintings, including the many French flags of Monet’s Rue Saint-Denis, fête du 30 juin, (which is actually in the Rouen collection), but there are some great effects. I particularly liked the way the windows were made to look like individual paintings, with great big gold frames.