Period scenes set mood for Impressionist masterpieces
An exhibition of French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston set to open at the National Gallery of Victoria - this may sound a little familiar.
The show was first installed at the NGV in 2021, but was only open for a month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now more than 100 paintings by the likes of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro have returned to Melbourne for the gallery's winter blockbuster opening on Friday.
The exhibition includes a whole room of Monet masterpieces that demonstrate his contribution to the groundbreaking late 19th century artistic movement, with its emphasis on light and colour, painting en plein air (outdoors), and everyday subject matter.
The 16 artworks in the room, which were painted over three decades, show familiar scenes such as Monet's garden in Giverny, landscapes in Argenteuil, and the Normandy and Mediterranean coastlines.
"You really get a sense of him as a man and a painter, by being able to be with him in those locations that were so important," said Katie Hanson from MFA Boston.
"In his lifetime, he was the epitome of Impressionism, and still is today."
Impressionist paintings are so widely reproduced - on everything from coffee mugs to calendars - that it's easy to take them for granted and forget just how radical Monet and his contemporaries really were, she said.
And seeing these masterpieces in the flesh is a totally different experience, according to Dr Hanson.
"You're able to feel so much of the immediacy of the painterly practice as the artist is putting the paint down onto the canvas, because the brush strokes are visible, and there is that wonderfully textured surface," she said.
Dr Hanson worked on the first iteration of the show and four years later is finally in Melbourne to see it installed.
Unlike the all-too-brief 2021 outing, this time around the NGV has gone for an "immersive" exhibition design with brocade fabrics, wallpapers, sconces and furniture creating a sumptuous surrounding for the artworks.
The idea is to reference European and Bostonian interiors of the late 19th century - the homes in which early collectors would have hung the artworks.
It's also a nod to the architecture of the Boston MFA, where a dedicated room to contemplate Monet has been a longstanding attraction.
The museum is renowned for its Impressionist collection, thanks to the foresight of a handful of early Bostonians who bought what were then contemporary paintings with an eye to the future of the institution.
"Their collection has the unique ability to narrate the entire trajectory of the Impressionist movement - from its precursors to its zenith - with rich detail and nuance," said NGV director Tony Ellwood.
The 2025 exhibition also features three extra works: paintings by Degas, Jean-François Raffaëlli and Victorine Meurent (known for being Édouard Manet's favourite model).
French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is on display from Friday until October 5 at NGV International on St Kilda Road in Melbourne.
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