The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Monet & Architecture
Through July 29, 2018
London, England
From the National Gallery:
With a focus on buildings and other structures in Claude Monet’s (1840–1926) works, this is the first exhibition devoted to the artist’s relationship with architecture, and invites us to see the ‘Father of Impressionism’ in an entirely new way. With more than seventy paintings by Monet, the exhibition spans his long career from its beginnings in the mid-1860s to the public display of his Venice paintings in 1912.
Buildings played substantial, diverse, and unexpected roles in Monet’s pictures. He painted historic structures such as Rouen Cathedral, and strikingly modern ones such as the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris. As a daring young artist he exhibited in the Impressionist shows of the 1870s, and displayed canvases of the bridges and buildings of suburban Paris. Much later as an elderly man, he depicted the splendid architecture of Venice. Visiting London as a tourist Monet presents sites we all recognise — the Houses of Parliament, Waterloo Bridge, and Charing Cross Bridge — and reflects them back to us through his unique vision. For Monet, a building could represent the human presence or function as a compositional element.
From Monet’s depictions of villages and picturesque settings, through his exploration of the modern city, and ending with his monumental series of works portraying Rouen Cathedral, the exhibition features loans from public and private collections from around the world, many of which have never been seen in the UK before.
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