According to a spokesperson at the Grand Palais, there are no plans to make more tickets available online. You are able to buy tickets at the Grand Palais, and the queue for entry is between 1 and 2 hours long.

You can still purchase a copy of the Grand Palais Exhibition Catalogue online.

But remember that there is also another Monet exhibition on at the Musée Marmottan Monet, until 20 February 2010.

In my opinion, while the Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais should not be missed – the exhibition at the Marmottan is in fact a better exhibition. There may be more paintings on show in the Grand Palais, but there are a number of significant paintings not on show that are important canvasses in the development of Monet’s style and contribution to Impressionism.

This is also a temporary exhibition, and includes many other personal effects that belonged to the artist. The Musée Marmottan has the World’s largest collection of Monet paintings, not all of which are on permanent display. For this temporary exhibition, everything in the Museum’s collection is on display until February. It really should not be overlooked, the hype over the exhibition at the exhibition at the Grand Palais notwithstanding.

Read more about Monet at Musée Marmatton, Paris 2010 – 2011, and book your tickets on that page. You reserve a ticket for 10.45 and are allowed entry any time during the day.

There are currently two temporary Monet exhibitions in Paris that will close in 2011. There is the Monet retrospective at the Grand Palais – organised by the Musée d’Orsay, and there is another at the Musée Marmatton Monet, from 7 October 2011 through to 20 February 2011. This exhibition, Claude Monet: son musée, presents for the first time the whole collection of Monet owned by the Musée Marmatton Monet – the biggest single collection of Monet paintings and other artefacts in the World. On show are 136 pieces by Monet, as well as a few others by his contemporaries.

The Marmottan Museum became a museum in 1934 following an incredibly generous donation to l’Académie des Beaux-Arts by Paul Marmottan. Later, in the 1960s Michel Monet gave the Museum a significant number of his father’s paintings, drawing and other objects.

The paintings the Museum has in its collection are some of the more iconic ones – those paintings missing from the retrospective on at the Grand Palais. These include the painting that gave rise to the Impressionist movement, namely Impression, soleil levant (above, a painting depicting sunrise over the harbour at Le Havre), paintings of the parliament buildings in London, the Cathedral in Rouen, the Japanese bridge at Giverny and of course some of his final paintings of the water-lilies.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS FOR THE MONET EXHIBITION AT THE MUSEE MARMOTTAN MONET HERE
On the first page, click on a time (within a box – those times not in a box are nolonger available) and date of your choice. The next page will automatically appear. On the next page you will be asked to first choose the number of tickets, and in what category. Then lower down the same page, you choose the payment option: unless you have a choose “Carte bancaire, Carte privative & Cartes Cadeaux” – credit cards being ‘carte bancaire’. Then click on ‘Poursuivre’ at the bottom right.

Opening Hours:
11.00 am – 18.00 Tuesday to Sunday
11.00 am – 21.00 Thursday
Closed on Mondays, 25 December, 1 January and 1 May.

Entry Fee €9
Reduced price €5, children under 8 free

Getting there:
2 rue Louis-Boilly
Métro Ligne 9 Muette
RER Ligne C Boulainvilliers

And, don’t forget about the exhibition Claude Monet, at the Grand Palais, Paris.

Claude Monet, 1878, The Rue Montorgueil in Paris. Celebration of June 30, 1878. Oil on Canvas 81 cm x 50 cm. © Musée d’Orsay.

Today, on the eve of what is being billed as one of the most significant art exhibitions in Paris for years, it is hard to imagine that the artist in the spotlight was once dismissed by the very nation that now holds him up as a national hero. Tomorrow, 22 September 2010, is the opening at the Grand Palais in Paris of the first major retrospective in thirty years of Claude Monet’s work.

Today Nicholas Sarkozy, the President of France, in a Foreword to the exhibition catalogue describes Claude Monet as “unmistakable emblem of the international influence of French culture”. Nearly 150 years ago, art critics scoffed at Monet and his friends’ new style, calling it “delusional”. Prominently displayed in the retrospective then is Monet’s Rue Montorgueil (above), a painting that depicts the celebrations at the end of the World Fair of 1878 and demonstrates French nationalist and republican enthusiasm of the time.

The Monet exhibition in Paris is expected to break all attendance records – which is not surprising really given that no movement in the history of Western art is more popular than Impressionism. A movement of art for which Claude Monet is widely regarded as its father.

With nearly 160 of Monet’s oil paintings on exhibit, this exhibit is by far the biggest collection of his paintings bought together in one exhibition. Sadly, because of institutional rivalries, some of Monet’s iconic images will be missing from the exhibition – including the painting that gave its name to the movement, i.e. the painting of the Le Havre harbour at sun rise, Impressionism, soleil levant (below).

To see those ‘missing’ paintings – go to Musée Marmottan Monet, where from 7 October 2010 – 20 February 2011 their entire collection will be on display for the first time ever.

These paintings aside, the Monet exhibition in Paris is a must for anyone with even the remotest interest Impressionist art.

Visiting Paris? See my Paris Impressionist Guide, where you will find information on other Impressionist-related sites and museums in the French capital.

It is no longer possible to buy ticket for this exhibition online. You can, however, buy tickets online for what I believe is a much better exhibition at the Musée Marmottan Monet, also in Paris, the museum that has the World’s biggest collection of Monet’s paintings and drawings. For more information, and a link to buy tickets, click here: Monet at the Musée Marmottan, Paris.

Opening times:
Friday to Monday 9h to 22h,
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 10h à 22h,
Thursday 10h à 20h
Last access – 45 minutes before closing
24 and 31 December 2010 – the exhibition shuts at 18h
25 December 2010 – the exhibition is closed

Entry Fee 12€
Reduced to 9€ for people aged between 13 and 25, and unemployed

Would you like to take a 5 day guided tour of Monet’s Normandy, while staying in a luxury B&B? Now is your last chance this year to see Monet’s garden in Giverny, and then visit the two Monet exhibitions in Paris, as well as some of the other landscapes and cityscapes in Normandy the Impressionist artists painted … Guided Tours of Monet’s Normandy.

Buy a copy of the Catalgue online – cheaper than at the gallery.

Need a hotel? click here for best deals on Paris hotels.

There are only a few weeks left to catch the “Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism” exhibition on at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. The show comprises 38 paintings from the Joslyn Art Museum’s Impressionist collection and the Brooklyn Museum’s collection, a selection of mid nineteenth to early twentieth-century French and American landscapes. The likes of Claude Monet and Gustave Courbet are joined by some of the more important American Impressionists of the time, such as Frederick Childe Hassam and John Singer Sargent.

Other French artists included in this joint venture between the Joslyn Art Museum and the Brooklyn Museum are Camille Pissarro, Eugène Boudin and Jules Breton. There are also a number of American artists who lived and painted in Giverny, including Theodore Robinson, Willard Leroy Metcalf and Julian Alden Weir. Impressionism was not a definable style with a unified set of principles, but rather a group of artists who came together with shared ideas. The juxtaposition of various paintings enables viewers to appreciate this first-hand.

Also on exhibit at the Joslyn Art Museum at this time are three paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The three paintings from Boston that make up a small companion exhibit, entitled Beyond Impressionism, are:
Vincent van Gogh’s Enclosed Field with Ploughman, painted in 1889
Claude Monet’s Meadow at Giverny, painted in 1886
Paul Gauguin’s Women and a White Horse, painted in 1903

The two exhibitions are on until 12 September 2010. For further details, visit the Joslyn Art Museum’s website, click here.

Towards the end of the 1880s it is said that Pierre-Auguste Renoir became dissatisfied with Impressionism, then still a relatively recent movement in the development of Western art. He began to travel more widely, first within France and then to Algeria, Spain and Italy, where he became influenced by other artists, including Delacroix, Velazquez and Titian. It is widely thought that his work during this time is his most fertile and innovative. And it is his paintings and sculptures from the final decades of his life that make up the Late Renoir exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Renoir and his family moved to the Mediterranean coast, specifically the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, in the hope that the climate there would help his rheumatoid arthritis. He frequently painted landscapes around the town, including the vineyards at Cagnes, pictured below.

This is just one of about 80 of Renoir’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Also, included in the exhibition are twenty works by other European artists of the day, including Aristide Maillol, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. The inclusion of the art of these painters attests to the influence Renoir had on the younger generations of artists at the time.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Vineyards at Cagnes, 1908. Oil on canvas. 45 cm x 59 cm. © Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Colonel and Mrs. E. W. Garbisch.

You can order the exhibition catalogue via Amazon:

Looking for a hotel? Booking.com has over 30 great hotels in Philadelphia to choose from, ranging from 1 to 5 star.

The Renoir exhibition is on until 6 September: exhibition website.

Have paintings will travel. The Birth of Impressionism exhibition, currently on show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, is headed next for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee. The exhibition, part of the Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay collection on the road while renovations in Paris are under way for the 25 anniversary in 2011, will open in Nashville 15 October 2010.

There will be about 100 mid to late 19th-century French paintings from the permanent collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. The exhibition tells the story of the birth of Impressionism in France in the mid 19th century, and its developemnt through to the last 19th century, through a selection of important works by artists such as Courbet, Manet, Cézanne, Monet, and Renoir.

Although this is the same exhibition that was on show previously in Madrid and then San Francisco, the Nashville exhibition will have seventeen paintings not seen in the two previous shows. These include:
The Dance Foyer at the Opera on Rue Le Peletier by Edgar Degas (1872)
Ballet Rehearsal on the Set by Edgar Degas (1874)
Argenteuil by Claude Monet (1875)
Church at Vetheuil by Claude Monet (1879)
Emile Zola by Edouard Manet (1868)
The Woman with a White Jabot by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1880)
William Sisley by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1864)

“The Musee d’Orsay has the finest collection of French mid-to-late 19th-century art in the world,” said Frist Center Executive Director Susan H. Edwards. “In sharing these masterworks with the cities of Madrid, San Francisco and Nashville, the Musee d’Orsay offers an unparalleled cultural experience to people who might not have the opportunity to travel to Paris.”

Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay at the First runs from 15 October 2010 through to 23 January 2011. Click here, to read more information about the exhibition. If you go and see the exhibition, please return and leave a comment below.

Edouard Manet, The Fife Player, 1866. Oil on canvas. 160 cm x 97 cm. © Musée d’Orsay.

Be prepared, get the exhibition catalogue from Amazon:

Looking for a room? Booking.com has over 40 Hotels in Nashville. Making your reservation is easy and safe.

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.

If you need a hotel for your stay, follow the link to choose from over 170 hotels in Melbourne.

To mark the Normandy Impressionism summer Festival 2010, the French Post Office have produced a collection of Impressionist stamps. The collection, entitled ‘Normandie, berceau des Impressionnistes‘ (Normandy, cradle of Impressionism), features 10 different paintings of Normandy landscapes by leading Impressionist painters.

Given his importance, there are three of Claude Monet’s paintings included in the special collection: his view of Rouen (1892), one of his water lilies paintings from 1908, and a painting of the wonderful cliffs at Etretat from 1884. Monet’s mentor, Eugène Boudin is featured twice with a seascape of clouds (1854-9) and the Fisherman at Villerville (1862-5).

The other five Impressionist painters included in the special set of Impressionist stamps are: Edgar Degas, At the Races in the Country (1869); Camille Pissaro with his view of the port of Dieppe (1902) and a view of the port at Le Havre (1903); Édouard Vuillard’s Garden at Amfreville (1905-7); and Paul Signac’s The Lighthouse of Gatteville (1934)

The set of stamps come attached to a presentation page that has some information about each of the original paintings and where there were taken from, and only costs €8.90. This can be ordered online at La Post’s website, which is available in English, German, Italian and Spanish besides French (the link goes straight to the Impressionist collection page).

If any MGN readers are stamp collectors or collectors of all things Impressionism, as I am, and you are having problems buying a set on La Poste’s website, I am more than happy to arrange this for you – just get in touch with me via the contact page (given I really do have a B&B at Basse Copette, I think you can rely on a safe transaction).

Not surprisingly there have been a great many number of books written about the Impressionists and their gardens. Monet not only created his garden, he made his garden famous by painting it and the various parts of it over and over again. Until now, however, there has not been an exhibition that focuses specifically on the Impressionist artists and their gardens. A major, new exhibition, jointly organised by the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (31 July – 17 October 2010) and Museo Thyssen–Bornemisza, Madrid (16 November 2010 – 13 February 2011), Impressionist Gardens, will change this.

Impressionist Gardens is a collection of over 90 paintings brought together from collections around the world that is specifically devoted to exploring the significance, the origins, and the influence of the Impressionist garden.

Obviously it was the great names in Impressionism, such as Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Manet and Sisley who were responsible for this new way of painting the garden. A continued significance of which can be seen in the work of artists such as Cézanne and Bonnard, who followed immediately after the Impressionists. The influence of this new trend can then be seen in the way in which these ideas spread to other European and American artists, such as van Gogh, Gauguin, Klimt and Sargent, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Besides this truly ground-breaking exhibition, a number of complementary events and activities have been organised by the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh.

Impressionist Gardens is on show in Edinburgh at the National Galleries of Scotland from 31 July through to 17 October 2010, when it will then move to Madrid and the Museo Thyssen–Bornemisza (16 November 2010 – 13 February 2011). This will be the only venue in the UK to show the exhibition. For information about the exhibition time, including prices, opening times and buying tickets, visit the National Gallery of Scotland’s website, click here.

You can buy your copy of the exhibition catalogue before your visit from Amazon, cheaper than at the Gallery:

Staying in Edinburgh? Booking.com, a leading international hotel comparison website, has over 200 Hotels in Edinburgh for you to choose from, from 1 to 5 star. Making a reservation online through Booking.com is safe and easy, as is altering it, should you need to.

I could go on talking about Monet for hours! I’m absolutely fascinated by this artist and by the way he painted. His paintings about his gardens in Giverny are mystical and mysterious, but also experimental and he kept studying on them. He could dive into a subject and paint it over and over to make it look exactly like the vision he had in mind. Monet was one of the first abstract painters, he was keen on experimenting and creating a new art movement. Arne Quinze

The city of Rouen is one of a number of towns and cities in Normandy taking part in one of the greatest festivals in celebration of Impressionism and the Impressionist artists in 2010. To mark this occasion in a grand way, Arne Quinze was commissioned to create an installation; he created Camille for Rouen, a tribute to Camille Doncieux, Claude Monet’s wife.

This amazing installation has been constructed out of ’sticks’ of wood that creates a kind of canopy over the Boieldieu Bridge that spans the River Seine. The official launch of Arne Quinze’s Camille in Rouen was at the beginning of July, and it will remain in place until the end of August.

Read more about the artwork in an interview on the Irenebrination: Notes on Art, Fashion and Style website with Arne Quinze about Camilleand Rouen here. (From where the above quote from Quinze was taken.)

I took the following photographs on Bastille Day, 14 July 2010, in the afternoon and then in the evening during the spectacular firework display that lasted for some 25 minutes.

Are you planning on staying in Rouen, and in need of a hotel? The website Booking.com has more than 25 Hotels in Rouen for you to choose from. Booking.com is one of the leading international hotel comparison websites, offering a choice of hotels from 1 to 5 star. Making a reservation is easy, and so is altering it, should you need to.