The Art Gallery of South Australia has secured an exclusive exhibition of impressionist masterpieces in a coup set to draw art lovers to the state.
More than 65 works by Monet, Cézanne, Renoir and Pissarro, among others, will be on show at the gallery from March 29 – July 29, 2018.
The paintings are from the renowned collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and chart the revolution of Impressionism, a 19th Century art movement known for its vibrant techniques and colour.
Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, 1875, oil on canvas, 84 x 60.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France, ©photo Musée d’Orsay / rmn
Director Nick Mitzevich says the exhibition, titled Colours of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, is the most important to ever be held at the Art Gallery of SA.
“With so few Impressionist works held in Australian collections, the exhibition presents a rare opportunity for Australians to see the movement’s radical evolution of colour,” he says.
“I would like to thank the Musée d’Orsay for sharing this remarkable collection with Australia.”
For the first time ever, the Art Gallery of SA will hold the exhibition in its Elder Wing which will recall the “light filled interior of the former metro station that now houses the Musée d’Orsay”.
One of the exhibition’s highlights will be Monet’s celebrated snowscape piece La Pie (The Magpie) painted by the revolutionary artist in the late 1860s.
Claude Monet, The Magpie, 1868 – 1869, oil on canvas, 89 x 130 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France, ©photo Musée d’Orsay / rmn
In 1869 the artwork, featuring a “novel palette of pale and lustrous colours”, was rejected by the Paris Salon, an esteemed annual exhibition.
Works by Cézanne, Monet and Pissarro reflect rich green and blue hues of the French countryside, while fellow leading painter Édouard Manet’s works feature darker tones.
The rosy pigments of Renoir and Morisot’s female figures will also trace the development of Impressionism.
SA Premier and Arts Minister Jay Weatherill says the exhibition is bound to be popular among art loving Australians who would “welcome the chance to see such an extensive display of Impressionist works in their own backyard”.
Berthe Morisot, The Cradle, 1872, oil on canvas, 56 x 46.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France ©photo Musée d’Orsay / rmn
“This exhibition is a real coup for our gallery, and the Musée d’Orsay have been extremely generous in the selection of works of art they are sending to the Southern Hemisphere, with a number of them coming here for the very first time,” he says.
The Colours of Impressionism exhibition was curated by Marine Kisel and Paul Perrin of the Musée d’Orsay for the Art Gallery of South Australia, in partnership with Art Exhibitions Australia.
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Header image: Claude Monet, The Water Lilies Pond, pink harmony, 1900, oil on canvas, 90 x 100 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France, ©photo Musée d’Orsay / rmn