Claude Monet
26 November, 2001 - 4 February, 2002

On 26 November, 2001, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow welcomed the first international exhibition of Claude Monet (1840-1926) in Russia. Half of the exhibited paintings (25) come from Russian collections, the State Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. These canvases were for the last time displayed together at the Museum of New Western Art in Moscow, then, in the 1930-40s, they were distributed between the two museums. Organizers of the exhibition decided to show all the Monet paintings in Russia (except Lady in the Garden which is now at the Hermitage - Guggenheim Exhibition Center in Las Vegas, U.S.A., but will be displayed at the State Hermitage Museum in 2002). It is important that visitors will see 6 Monet paintings from private German collections kept at the Hermitage after the Second World War. They were displayed for the first time in 1995 when the exhibition Unknown Masterpieces was held at the Hermitage. 24 canvases are loaned by museums of Europe and America including the Metropolitan (New York), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Art Institute (Chicago) and Muse e d'Orsay (Paris). Works from Russian and foreign collections complement each other to provides a wide panorama of Claude Monet's work. For example, the exhibition shows 2 portraits from the Muse e Marmottan-Monet (Paris) including Monet's self-portrait. One of the two paintings loaned for the exhibit by the Metropolitan Museum is Monet's best still life Sunflowers. It is interesting to see paintings of the same series, for example, 4 paintings of the Rouen Cathedral series from the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Muse e d'Orsay (Paris) and Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. 2 Monet paintings of the Haystacks series (Art Institute of Chicago) are displayed alongside 2 paintings of the same subject from Russian museums. The exhibition shows paintings from series which have not been known so far to the Russian public such as Haystacks, Gare Saint-Lazare and Poplars.

From 12 February, 2001, to 15 May, 2001, the exhibition will be displayed in the new exhibition rooms of the General Staff in St. Petersburg.

The Seine at Rouen
1872
Larger view

Pond at Montgeron
Cicrca 1876
Larger view

Garden in Bordighera, Impression of Morning
1884
Larger view

Haystack at Giverny
1886
Larger view