Overview
When it comes to history's legendary painters, Claude Monet's name stands out above most. Now, for the first time ever, Australian audiences are invited to experience the painting that the entire Impressionist movement was named after as the National Gallery of Australia exhibits Monet's world-famous masterpiece, Impression, sunrise.
As well as a striking collection of other Monet paintings — including the instantly recognisable Waterlilies and On the Beach at Trouville — the exhibition features works by an array of artists who inspired or followed Monet into leaving behind the studio and painting 'en plein air'. From JMW Turner to James McNeill Whistler and Eugène Boudin, other contemporaries of Monet featured at the NGA include Alfred Sisley and Berthe Morisot, one of the few female painters among the Parisian Impressionists.
With their visible brush strokes and incredible depictions of light and its subtle changes, many of these works have been gathered from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, which almost never loans its collection.
Running until Sunday September 1, Monet: Impression Sunrise is undoubtedly worth taking a wintertime road trip to Canberra for, so grab your pals and hit the road.
Images: Claude Monet, Impression, sunrise (1872), courtesy Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris and Christian Baraja SLB; Claude Monet, Waterlilies (1914–17), courtesy NGA; Claude Monet, On the beach at Trouville (1870), Courtesy Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris and Bridgeman Images.