The Currier Museum’s own Monet painting starred in major international exhibitions

(TRAVPR.COM) USA - June 20th, 2017 - MANCHESTER, NH – Claude Monet’s beautiful landscape made in 1869, The Bridge at Bougival, is one of New Hampshire’s most beloved paintings. It has recently been shown at major exhibitions in Houston, Fort Worth, and San Francisco. To celebrate its return home, the Currier Museum has borrowed three other pivotal paintings by Monet each illustrating a different period in the artist’s career. This focused exhibition will allow visitors to understand the creativity of Monet and to see him in the context of his American followers. Monet: Pathways to Impressionism opens on July 1 and runs until November 13, 2017.

An intimate look at a great artist

The exhibition includes loans from the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

La Pointe de la Hève at Low Tide is the painting that launched Monet’s career in 1865. Gray and somber, it already reveals the energetic brushwork and attention to light of Impressionism. The Currier’s own The Bridge at Bougival is one of Monet’s earliest paintings to precede the development of Impressionism. Forms are broken by patterns of sunlight and shade. Cap Martin (1884) is a warmly colored play of light across mountains into the sandy and rocky foreground. Charing Cross Bridge (1900) presents a departure from Monet’s fully mature Impressionist works, where the emphasis is of the mood and atmosphere of London.

Impressionism attacked

The term “Impressionism” came from the title Monet gave to a painting at the Paris Salon of 1874: Impression, Sunrise. The term was used by critics to attack the new style because it seemed hazy and entirely without form and structure. Monet and his friends proudly adopted the term for their movement.

Intimate in-focus exhibitions at the Currier Museum

Monet: Pathways to Impressionism is part of a series of exhibitions that devotes special attention to important objects in the museum’s collection (sometimes new acquisitions or old favorites), to show works in a new context. Max Pechstein’s double-sided painting launched the series last year.

Special event

Twilight at the Currier:
Summer Block Party

July 22, 5 pm to 9 pm

The Currier Museum of Art is throwing a summer block party. This first-of-its-kind summer event focuses on family-friendly activities including art-making, an art battle with Positive Street Art, food trucks, live music, beer and wine tent, and so much more. This event will include both indoor and outdoor activities and admission is free for all. Food and drink will be available for purchase.

Related events

Focus Tours of Monet: Pathways to Impressionism

July 16 and August 26, 11:30 am

Enjoy a deeper look at four of Monet’s masterpieces representing pivotal points in his career, as well as the American Impressionists he inspired, led by a museum
docent educator.

Storytime in the Gallery: Philippe in Monet’s Garden

July 24, 11:30 am

Hear a children’s librarian read Philippe in Monet’s Garden by Lisa Jobe Carmack, then create your own garden inspired work of art. Recommended for ages 2 to 5, but all are welcome. Free with general admission – kids 12 and younger are always free.

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