The most comprehensive U.S. exhibition of Monet paintings in more than two decades, the exhibition features more than 100 paintings spanning Monet’s career. Focuses on the celebrated French impressionist artist’s enduring relationship with nature and his response to the varied and distinct places in which he worked.
Monet traveled more extensively than any other impressionist artist in search of new motifs. His journeys to varied places including the rugged Normandy coast, the sunny Mediterranean, London, the Netherlands, and Norway inspired artworks that will be featured in the presentation. The exhibition will uncover Monet’s continuous dialogue with nature and its places through a thematic and chronological arrangement, from the first examples of artworks still indebted to the landscape tradition to the revolutionary compositions and series of his late years.
The presentation of Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature explores Monet’s continuous interest in capturing the quickly changing atmospheres, the reflective qualities of water and the effects of light, aspects that increasingly led him to work on multiple canvases at once. Additionally, the exhibition examines the critical shift in Monet’s painting when he began to focus on series of the same subject, including artworks from his series of Haystacks, Poplars, Waterloo Bridge, and Water Lilies.
Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature also delves into the artist’s increasing abandonment of any human presence in the landscapes he created, a testimony to his commitment to isolate himself in nature. This creative process simultaneously established an intimacy with his subject, which culminated later in Giverny, where he created his own motif through meticulous planning, planting, and nurturing of his flowers and plants, which he then translated onto the canvas.
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.