About the exhibition Monet, founder of impressionism

Sleepy landscapes

The artist never shied away from braving harsh climate to experiment with lighting effects and the play of colours. On his paintings, snow and ice flood reveal the thousand and one nuances of the white blanket covering the landscapes.

Sunlight melts the ice and winter gives way to the colours of spring. View at Rouelles, his first famous piece, is the one he painted at the age of just 18 when Eugène Boudin introduced him to plein air painting. 

Full steam ahead!

The artist captures the urban scene movement and energy with rapid brushstrokes and vivid colours. The silhouettes of passers-by, carriages and trees mingle in a visual dance, reflecting the city’s effervescence and its new boulevards. 

Monet visited Paris several times during his career. In 1877, he set up his easel beside the locomotives. He endeavoured to capture the changing and unstable aspects of light, the blurred movement of his subjects and the evanescence of smoke.

France is building new rail infrastructure that cuts through forests, crisscrosses fields and spans rivers. Through the windows, the landscapes of the Normandy coast flash before our eyes. Claude Monet regularly visited Étretat, where he was captivated by the little port’s spectacular cliffs, painting its breathtaking panoramas over 80 times. 
 

Normandy beaches

Claude Monet painted the upper class’s holiday resorts at the end of the Second Empire. The bright white dresses contrast with the shadowy faces and the blue sea. A few grains of sand in the layers of oil on the canvases show that the pieces were actually painted outdoors, an exploit made possible by the invention of flexible tubes of paint and portable easels. 

But soon the sky darkens. Waves break on the rocks of Port-Coton and sea foam bubbles around the jagged reefs. Using the juxtaposition of colours, he applies green and red to make our eyes see brown. 
 

At the waterside

Whether intentional or not, Claude Monet lived by the water, never straying too far from his favourite
subject. Some of the painter’s most emblematic works show the Seine and its banks. He paints in his famous studio boat, which enabled him to paint the river from the water, using daring viewpoints and compositions. 

La Grenouillère was a floating café and dance hall that was the place to be for boating and bathing. Nicknamed the “Trouville on the banks of the Seine”, it is frequented by “Tout-Paris”: the Who’s Who of painters, writers and a lively crowd flock there to enjoy the summer days in complete freedom. In the summer of 1869, Monet was reunited with his friend Auguste Renoir and they painted alongside one another, capturing the essence of summer life by the water.
 

Gardens 

Gardens were a recurring theme in Claude Monet’s career, forming a varied body of work linked to different moments in the painter’s life. From the gardens of Paris where we see his first love Camille, to the gardens of Giverny, Argenteuil, Vétheuil and so many others, these paintings offer us a glimpse of the artist’s family life. In the midst of the flowery groves, under the dappled light of the foliage, children and parents play, read, paint and chat.

Luncheon on the Grass was painted by the young Monet in 1865. Two years after Edouard Manet’s piece caused controversy, Claude Monet began his own version as a tribute, with his circle of friends (Frédéric Bazille, Camille Doncieux, Gustave Courbet) posing for a simple picnic. The monumental project was too costly and was abandoned, with the poorly preserved canvas becoming damaged. The two pieces we received have been superimposed on the walls. They overlap with his 1866 sketch, which reveals the artist’s original vision.
 

A walk in the countryside

After being introduced to landscape painting by Eugène Boudin, Monet explored the countryside and interpreted it in his own way. He wanted to paint the feeling. Poppies, clouds and foliage allowed him to work on his brushstrokes, with bursts of colour spreading out and contours becoming diluted, allowing the visual impression that emerges to dominate. 

The wind blows away the scarlet petals, revealing the Women with their parasols. The brushstrokes are free and spontaneous, the models seen from a low angle are bathed in light, the wind plays with their scarves and parasols. Monet perfectly captures an enchanting summer’s day.
 

The Mediterranean

Monet travelled extensively throughout his career. In 1883 and 1888, he visited Antibes and northern Italy. The painter was enthusiastic: “I should be painting with gold and gems”, he wrote to Théodore Duret. The artist’s brush excitedly paints a translucent Mediterranean Sea, his palette vibrant with intense colours. The gardens of Italy’s Bordighera overflow with lush vegetation, resulting in some forty works.

The Italian Riviera is not far from the Veneto region, but Claude Monet did not discover Venice until 1908. Invited by a friend, he went with his new wife Alice Hoschedé. The painter set up on Piazza San Marco, at the Palazzo Barbaro, or in his hotel room, with water dominating his compositions, occupying more than half of his paintings. Monet strived to capture the famous Venetian mist and the palaces’ reflections on the water. Gondolas sail past San Giorgio Maggiore church, drenched in pink and orange.
 

Japonisme

In 1853, Japan was emerging from a long period of economic isolation and opening up to the Western market. Japonisme movement swept through Paris, initially within small groups of enthusiasts, before finding a wider audience thanks to World’s Fairs. Many artists amassed collections, with Monet acquiring more than 200 prints. 

Exhibited at the Second Impressionist Exhibition in 1876, La Japonaise was a real challenge for the artist. Monet proved his virtuosity in rendering the richness of the red kimono and its embroidery. His model was Camille Doncieux, whom he met in 1865 and married in 1870. She wears a blonde wig and holds a red, white and blue fan, accentuating the juxtaposition between the Parisian model and the Japanese objects around her.
 

The series

The views of Mount Fuji blend into the landscape with Monet’s first official series: Haystacks. The artist painted the same composition at different times of day, observing the atmospheric effects of light and variations in  colour. The 25 paintings are superimposed in transparency like photographs. The exhibition devoted to them was a true commercial success, cementing the painter’s reputation and ensuring a period of financial security for the Monet family.

In 1891, Monet moved to the banks of the Epte, upstream from Giverny. Poplars inspired a new series of
around twenty works. Seen in the background of his poppy fields and haystacks, the poplars stand tall
and became a subject in their own right. Monet’s series became systematic when he tackled Rouen Cathedral. Working like a photographer, Monet found his point of view and observed the changing light and seasons on a man-made façade. The pixels discompose, revealing one work after another.

Claude Monet stayed in London several times. The first time was in 1870, to escape the war that was raging on the continent, with three more visits between 1899 and 1901. He worked to capture the Thames’s misty, industrial atmosphere in shades of pink and blue. 
 

Giverny and the water lilies

Claude Monet lived in his house in Giverny for 43 years, from 1883 to 1926. The infinitely colourful flowery groves are the artist’s main subject.

The garden in Giverny gave rise to two major subjects: the Japanese bridge and the water lilies. The Japanese Footbridge series was painted between 1895 and 1924, and illustrates both the Japanese influence and the evolution of the artist’s style, with the last canvases verging on abstraction. The bridges were followed by what is now Monet’s most famous subject: water lilies. He is said to have painted over 250 pieces of all shapes and sizes.

“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.”