It was in Paris that a young Claude Monet met other like minded artists, a group that would go on to create what is generally accepted to be the most popular styles of art, that is Impressionism. It is only fitting then that for Monet fans visiting Paris today there are now some of the best permanent collections of his work on show. The three museums not to miss are the Musée de l’Orangerie, Musée d’Orsay and Musée Marmottan Monet. [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 →]

The Tim Rogers Band perform at ‘Starry Nights’, an evening event hosted by the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra during the ‘Masterpieces from Paris’ exhibition – visit the NGA’s Facebook or Flickr pages for more of their photographs. @National Gallery of Australia

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. [Read more →]

The entrance to the Musée des Impressionnismes, Giverny.

The main attraction in Giverny is obviously Monet’s house and gardens. But any visitor to Giverny really should not miss the new impressionist museum. The Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny opened its doors 1 May 2009, taking over from the Terra Foundation’s Museum of American Art in Giverny. [Read more →]

Claude Monet, Plage de Pourville, 1882. Oil on canvas (60 X 73 cm). © National Museum in Poznań, Poland. Stolen from the Museum in 2000, and recovered by Polish Police 12 January 2010.

Monet’s Plage de Pourville, painted in 1882 and stolen in 2000 from National Museum in Poznań, Poland, was recently recovered by the Polish police and presented to an eager press-pack in Poznań. And yesterday, 1 March, the man who stole Poland’s only painting by Monet was placed under psychiatric observation. [Read more →]

Camille Pissarro, View of Rouen, 1898, oil on canvas. © Honolulu Academy of Arts

The role played by the city of Rouen in the history of Western art at the end of the nineteenth century is immense. Camille Pissarro is said to have remarked that “Rouen is a beautiful as Venice”.

This summer the museum of Fine Art in Rouen will host a major exhibition of Impressionist artists as part of the Normandie Impressionniste 2010 festival:

“Clemenceau came to pay us a visit after lunch and stayed until 5 o’clock. … He was so amazed by the garden, and the water lilies, that he said to his daughter as he left: ‘You know, on the way home we are going to sell Bernouville, there is nothing more to be done after seeing Monet’s garden!’” Alice Monet, June 1909*

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, has in its collection a number of Claude Monet’s paintings of the pond he created, the water lilies and the Japanese bridge. These include the large triptych, Water Lilies (1914–26), a painting of the water lilies in the pond, Water Lilies (1914–26), The Japanese Footbridge (c. 1920–22) and Agapanthus (1914–26). [Read more →]

“Dieppe is a wonderful place for a painter who likes life, movement and colour.” Camille Pissarro, 1902

In the 1820s Dieppe became one of France’s premier swimming resorts. In the following decades the town became very popular with artists, particularly painters, and for the impressionists Dieppe was a gift, as the above quote from Pissarro shows. The painters were attracted by the light, the wind, the sea and the air. And the town itself presented painters with varied sources of inspiration, great views of the sea from striking white cliffs, as well as the bustling activities of a busy seaside port. [Read more →]