« Je passe ma vie à peindre ». Un parcours Claude Monet en galerie impressionniste

Musée d'Orsay

On the occasion of the centenary of his death, Claude Monet is honoured in the Impressionist galleries (rooms 29 to 35) through a dedicated exhibition trail. Five paintings, recently studied or restored, reveal another facet of his art, less spontaneous than it appears. Retracing the first decades of his career up to the turn of the century, his paintings show him wholly absorbed in his quest to paint outdoors and to render his “sensation”. They brilliantly convey the atmosphere of the banks of the Seine or the choppy waves of the sea, the spring greenery or the harsh winter of landscapes near and far, which his brush transfigures. But beneath this dazzling ease lies a relentless quest: to paint a three-metre canvas in his garden; to compose a snow landscape; to evoke a life-size family meal, with or without guests, or, quite concretely, to decide whether or not to varnish his painting. These are among the questions Monet asked himself, and which will be addressed in this exhibition, developed with the assistance of the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France and Bénédicte Trémolières, a restorer specialising in the artist, as well as with the participation of several other restorers. Thanks also to the presentation of a few letters, the whole allows us to encounter the artist, at the heart of his work and his creative process.

Source: Paris Open Data ↗