Next spring, the National Gallery in London will play host to ‘Monet and Architecture’, a blockbuster exhibition that will be devoted to the famous French artist Claude Monet. Last week, the director of the gallery, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, announced that the show will feature over 70 paintings by the admired impressionist.
The artist’s previous retrospective was found to be the most popular art exhibition in British history. The upcoming show is expected to be just as favoured, as the British public has yet to reach “peak Monet” claims Dr Finaldi.
“There has not been a monographic exhibition on Monet for nearly 20 years,” he said. However, in 2016 more than two dozen Monets were included in a Royal Academy show, Painting the Modern Garden.
Monet also has a selection of his masterpieces on permanent display at the National Gallery and Tate Britain. According to the Telegraph, in 2015 Monet’s famous Water Lilies series were voted the nation’s favourite paintings, ahead of The Hay Wain by Constable and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Dr Finaldi commented: “I think you can’t get enough Monet. He’s such an extraordinary, inventive, beautiful artist, his oeuvre is so wide-ranging and so influential. I think we should be having Monet exhibitions every ten years or so.
“I suppose he often features in impressionist shows and group shows. But it’s nearly a generation since he had a show of his own in the capital. And I think we can be fairly confident that Monet is an artist who attracts a wide range of the population.”
The show will run from the beginning of April till the end of July and will focus specifically on the artist’s paintings of buildings. In particular, the exhibition will include his depiction of the Thames and its bridges, the architecture of Venice, and his series of Rouen Cathedral.
Other famous paintings will include The Douanier’s Cottage – a picturesque work of art depicting the home of a customs officer overlooking the ocean.
As a result of the current terror threat in London, visitor numbers to the National Gallery have fallen, but it is hoped that this exhibition will help them increase once more. In 1999, a show devoted to Monet was held at the Royal Academy and over the course of three months recorded 813,000 visitors. This is a figure that has never been surpassed.
Following the Monet show, the gallery will host an exhibition that is devoted to the relationship between Giovanni Bellini and Andrea Mantegna – two artists from the 15th century.
Plans for 2017-18 include a Degas show, an exhibition dedicated to the work of Thomas Cole, and shows featuring the paintings of Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto, Bartolome Esteban Murillo and Ed Ruscha.