The National Gallery of Victoria presents Monet’s Garden: The Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris an exhibition on view 10 May until 8 September 2013.
The exhibition will include more than fifty masterpieces from the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, as well as other paintings from leading international museums and private collections around the world. Early photographs of the artist and his garden will also be on display.
Opening with a pair of portraits of Claude Monet and his wife Camille painted in 1872 by Pierre-August Renoir, the start of the exhibition tells the story of Monet’s early life.
The exhibition then takes visitors on a journey beginning with Monet’s arrival in Giverny in 1883 and the first steps taken towards the creation of the garden that would serve as inspiration for the remainder of Monet’s life.
The first section of the show will include a series of paintings that Monet produced during the years the garden at Giverny was being laid out. These were created in Normandy, in the valley of the Seine, or during Monet’s travels to Norway and London. Highlights include Field of Yellow Irises at Giverny 1887 and Parliament, Reflections on the Thames 1900.
The second section of the exhibition will consist entirely of paintings representing Monet’s beautiful garden at Giverny, produced between 1897 and 1926.
The exhibition will also present a series of rarely seen late works by Monet; some of the last easel paintings created in the garden in Giverny as the artist began to lose his sight. These works represent a radical departure from Monet’s earlier style and will provide visitors to the exhibition with the unique opportunity to explore a lesser known period in the artist’s life.
This will be the tenth Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition at the NGV since the series began in 2004 with The Impressionists. It has since attracted more than 3.5 million people to Melbourne’s cultural institutions. Monet’s Garden will be presented alongside Hollywood Costume at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in 2013.
The exhibition is organised by the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris in association with the National Gallery of Victoria and Art Exhibitions Australia.
Monet’s Garden: The Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris will be on at the National Gallery of Victoria from 10 May until 8 September 2013. Tickets on sale now. Adult $26 | Child $10 | Concession $22.50. www.ngv.vic.gov.au