A group of students recently got in touch to tell me about their involvement and learning in during the preparations for an exhibition of impressionist art soon to open. Reading their blog it sounds like they have innovative lecturers who have helped make the most of a wonderful opportunity. Rarely do we get to read about the preparations of an exhibition, and the excitement of the students is infectious – well, who would not be excited about experiencing behind the scenes as this class is. Read their introduction below, and have a look at their bog – it is a fascinating read.

Seeing Colors: Secrets of the Impressionists is coming to the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia on October 22nd, 2011.

Featuring forty paintings including two by Monet, three by Pissarro, two by Boudin, a beautiful Bazille landscape based on a Monet sketch, two by Renior, and others, students enrolled in the museum seminar at The College of William & Mary have a rare and exceptional opportunity to work behind the scenes of this major exhibition. The class changes everyday so students never know exactly what to expect – a day in Professor John Spike’s class ranges from monographic lectures on the artists in the show, to talks from the Museum Director Dr. Aaron De Groft, to hands on work towards the hanging of the show. During the first week of class students chose their specific task teams including tour guides and docent training, public relations, creating education material, writing painting labels, and even putting together a musical tour to accompany the show, and they have been hard at work ever since.

The exhibition is on until 22 January 2012. For more information on what students are up to, countdown to the opening with the class blog.

Gustave Caillebotte, 1884, Man at His Bath. Oil on canvas 183 cm x 137 cm. © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Just a few days ago it was revealed that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was selling eight impressionist paintings to raise money to pay for a painting by Gustave Caillebotte. Man at His Bath, painted by Caillebotte in 1884, is widely recognised to be one of the artist’s finest pieces. The painting is the first impressionist nude in the museum’s permanent collection. But this decision of the MFA’s has vexed a few art bloggers and critics. Not everyone is happy that eight impressionist pieces have been sold for a painting of what Scot Lehigh of the Boston Globe says “is not an eye-catching celebration of the human form, a la Michelangelo’s ‘David.’ Rather, it’s an everyday view of … well, mostly of an everyday butt.” [Read more →]

Tickets for the Monet Exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris are no longer available online.

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.

Claude Monet, 1873, Impression, soleil levant. Oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm. © Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.

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. [Read more →]

Please Note: This exhibition has now ended. If you are visiting Paris and would like to see Monet’s art, click here for my >> Paris Impressionist Guide … for all the information about Monet and the other French Impressionists in 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. [Read more →]

Édouard Manet, The Railway, 1873. Oil on canvas, 24 cm x 19.45 cm @ The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
“These are not things that are in storage and are sort of being hauled out. These are [the National Gallery's] masterpieces.” Helga Aurisch, MFAH curator of European art.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, will host a major exhibition of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces from the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. for the first half of 2011. [Read more →]