Melbourne Event: Monet’s Garden at the NGV

Waterlilies (Nymphéas) (1916–19)
by Claude Monet

Opening in May 2013, this stunning exhibition will be devoted to Claude Monet’s iconic garden at Giverny and will include more than fifty masterpieces from the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, as well as paintings from leading international museums and private collections.

Renowned as the ‘father of French Impressionism’ Monet’s forging of a new artistic style was inspired by his direct experiences of nature, culminating in the ravishing depictions of his own lily and flower gardens in the rural property at Giverny, northern France, that became his lifelong obsession. Through a magnificent and sweeping series of paintings, visitors will experience every facet of Monet’s picturesque garden; the iconic Japanese footbridge and water lily ponds, but also the irises, agapanthus, wisteria, weeping willow and alleys of roses with which Monet surrounded himself and which he painted repeatedly.

An absolute must-see highlight of the exhibition is a stunning suite of waterlilies paintings that Monet completed between 1900 and 1919. Monet’s Garden traces the evolution of his garden subjects over a period of some twenty years, revealing the transition of Monet’s purely Impressionist style to the expressive pictorial idiom that he adopted in later life.

Audiences will enter the private world of Monet and his family through early family portraits, including two by Auguste Renoir and photographs of Monet, his family and friends and his garden. The exhibition will also present a glimpse of Monet as an intrepid traveller, via a series of brilliant painted impressions of Normandy, the valley of the Seine, Norway and London. But it was to his gardens at Giverny that Monet always returned, and his paintings acquired a grandeur and breathtaking freedom of handling as he and his gardens matured.

Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these masterpieces in Australia, exclusive to Melbourne. The exhibition is organised by the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris in association with the National Gallery of Victoria and Art Exhibitions Australia.

Where? NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Level G.
When? 10 May to 18 September 2013.
How much? Adult $26.00, Concession $22.50, NGV Member Adult $21.00.
More info? Visit the NGV website for more details and purchasing tickets online.