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.

On Sunday evening, 5 pm local time, the doors finally closed at Canberra’s National Gallery of Australia on the ‘Masterpieces from Paris‘ exhibition. By all accounts, the exhibition closed on an incredible high for the Gallery.

Such was the demand to see the exhibition, that on 11 March the NGA announced that the closing date would be extended to 18 March. Not only were gallery opening hours extended, but the Gallery also used time ticketing to cut down on waiting times.

“It is very rare indeed to be able to extend an exhibition. To be allowed to keep these works of art in Canberra for an extra two weeks is marvellous and a unique opportunity.” Ron Radford, Director of the National Gallery of Australia, 11 March 2010.

Also, for the last weekend the exhibition was open for 32 hours leading up to the final closing time of 5 pm. Entertainment was laid on to ensure the exhibition went out with a bang.

‘Masterpieces from Paris: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond’ featured 112 of some of the best-known works of modern art from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, including Monet, Van Gogh, Cézanne and Gauguin.

It is said that this extraordinary exhibition is one of the most spectacular to come to Australia. ABC News reported on Saturday that over 430 000 people had already been to see the exhibition. The Exhibition now moves on to Japan and then San Francisco.

I have already posted a guest review of the exhibition by Michael Hill, but if any other MGN readers saw the exhibition, do please add your comments below.

Click on the links for the National Gallery of Australia’s Facebook Page and their Flickr Photostream.

My first impression was of its popularity. An attempt to enter at opening time in the morning had to be abandoned due to the waiting queues. So I returned around midday thinking there would be a drop off in attendance during the lunch time hours but this was not the case. A third attempt to gain admission without undue queuing on the same day was successful, however, when I returned to the gallery in mid-afternoon around 3pm. No queuing, no waiting just prompt access.

The exhibition features 112 of some of the best-known works of Post-Impressionism by artists such as Van Gogh, Gaugin, Cézanne, Seurat, Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis and of course Monet whom I shall refer to as Oscar (his original first name) for the remainder of this review. Popular works in the show included Van Gogh’s bedroom at Arles 
[Le chambre de van Gogh à Arles] and his Starry night 
[La nuit étoilée], Gaugin’s Tahitian women 
[Femmes de Tahiti], various still life studies and some of Oscar’s paintings such as Villas at Bordighera 
[Les villas à Bordighera] 1884 
oil on canvas, a blaring summer scene of an Italian holiday resort; In the Norwegian 
[En norvégienne] c. 1887 
oil on canvas that shows Oscar’s stepdaughters in a wooden rowing-boat, the three figures and their reflections floating on background of leaf and water; and Study of a figure outdoors: woman with a sunshade turned to the right 
[Essai de figure en plein-air: femme à l'ombrelle tournée vers la droite] 1886 
oil on canvas and gift of Michel Monet, the artist’s son, study of a female figure in a white dress located in a sun-drenched landscape with straw hat and parasol.

My personal favourites of Oscar’s paintings were London, Parliament: sun through the fog 
[Londres, le Parlement: trouée de soleil dans le brouillard] 1904 
oil on canvas, a powerful portrait of the English Houses of Parliament, as blur of red and gold tinged haze across the polluted sky and river; and
 Waterlily pond, green harmony 
[Le bassin aux nymphéas, harmonie verte] 1899 
oil on canvas. Standing before this painting I was … well … stunned. It is absolutely beautiful, a celebration of the hue of green. There is a bit of blue and pink as well but it is the green that dazzles. It is a view of the Japanese bridge in his garden at Giverny straddling a scene crammed with trees, reeds, bushes and water lilies. Wonderful to see!

Images of the work exhibited can be viewed on the gallery’s website along with accompanying contextual information and a short video, click here.

Michael Hill, PhD (aka Doctor Comics) is a Sydney based comics scholar and visual artist.

Claude Monet. 1899. Waterlily pond, green harmony [Le bassin aux nymphéas, harmonie verte]. Oil on canvas 89 cm x 93.5 cm. © Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

The summer exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, has broken previous attendance records. The exhibition opened 4 December 2009, and on Friday 26 February Ron Radford, Director of the National Gallery, personally welcomed the 250 000th visitor. According to tourism statistics, around 70% of the visitors are from outside Canberra. The previous record was set in 1992, with Rubens and the Italian Renaissance which attracted 241 770 visitors.

Masterpieces from Paris: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and beyond is the result of a joint venture between the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the National Gallery of Australia. It is widely said to be one of the most spectacular exhibitions to come to Australia.

The exhibition showcases some of the best-known works of modern art from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. There are 112 pieces in all, including some of the World’s most well-know paints from this period, such as Van Gogh’s Bedroom at Arles 1889, Cézanne’s beloved Mount Saint-Victoire circa 1890, Gauguin’s Tahitian women 1891.

With these best-known and often-reproduced paintings, paintings that are central to the Musée d’Orsay’s outstanding reputation as a leading international art museum, this landmark exhibition demonstrates the dramatic changes that took place in European art at the end of the 19th century.

The museum has a wide range of activities and events associated with the exhibition, and a wonderful and exemplary exhibition website; for more details on the exhibition and the related activities click here.

Paul Gaugin. Washerwomen at Pont-Aven [Les lavandières à Pont-Aven], 1886. Oil on canvas 71 cm x 90 cm. © Musée d’Orsay, Paris. One of the 112 masterpieces from Paris currently on show in Australia.