Agrarian Ideal

This exhibition brings two great Impressionist masterpieces to Norfolk: Claude Monet's Haystacks, Late Summer, from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, and Vincent van Gogh's Wheat Field behind St. Paul's Hospital, St. Remy from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Imagine Winslow Homer, Jean-Francois Millet, Alfred Boucher, Paul Gauguin, and more. The works reflect an era where country people were moving to the city, and artists from the city were taking to the countryside. They documented, and sometimes idealized, a vision of the simple life on the land. This traditional way of life was under great pressure from industrialization, and it adds a bittersweet poignancy to these exquisitely executed works.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.