Claude Monet, View of Vetheuil, 1881. Albertina, Vienna
This winter sees the first Monet exhibition at the Albertina Museum for over 20 years. There are over 100 paintings to enjoy, with many loaned from over 40 international museums and private collections such as the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the National Gallery London, the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.
The retrospective presentation, working with the Musée MarmottanMonet in Paris (which has loaned over 40 of the paintings), illuminates Monet’s development from realism to impressionism and then onward to a mode of painting in which it is said that the artist’s late works came to pave the way for abstract expressionism in painting.
Claude Monet, Lane in the Poppy Field, Ile Saint-Martin, 1880. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Organised chronologically, the visitor follows in the footsteps of the Monet along the Seine, pausing at various stations of his life: in Paris, where he captured the pulse of modern life with flickering light; in Argenteuil, where he reconciled nature and technology; in Vétheuil, where, in the face of his precarious financial and family situation, he withdrew into solitude to devote himself to unspoiled and original nature; and finally in Giverny, where he arrived at a new aesthetic concept that led Impressionism out of its crisis and paved the way for modern painting.
The river also stands for the many aspects that characterize Monet’s oeuvre: the flowingworld of the Japanese woodblock prints that influenced Monet; the coalescing of water, mist, fog, snow, and ice; the colors that change with the weather and lighting conditions; the reflections on the water surface. The visitor also accompanies Monet to the coasts of Normandy and Brittany, to London and Norway, either to understand his beginnings in Le Havre and his repeated visits to the Atlantic coast, or to visit places together with the artist which promised him new inspiration for his painting.
Claude Monet, Near Monte Carlo, 1883. Private Collection
This exhibition is delightful because never have so many paintings by this iconic artist been shown together, and they also include many paintings which are rarely on display. There are the usual water lilies, but there is also so much more to enjoy. The exhibition finishes on the 6th January, so don't delay as it will be over all too soon.
Claude Monet
Albertina, Vienna
Showing until 6 January 2019
For more information, CLICK HERE
Alice travelled to Vienna with Kirker Holidays who are specialists in luxury short breaks