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More than 100 impressionist masterworks, including 19 Monet paintings, will travel to Melbourne from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this year as part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Winter Masterpieces exhibition.
NGV director Tony Ellwood announced the blockbuster exhibition on Monday as part of the gallery’s unveiling of its 2021 program – an announcement delayed by two weeks due to Melbourne’s snap five-day lockdown in February.
Along with the Monet works, paintings from Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro and Mary Cassatt will headline French Impressionism, which is scheduled to open at the NGV International in June.
Seventy-nine of the paintings have never been exhibited in Australia before.
“To stage an exhibition such as this is a true coup for Melbourne and Australia under normal circumstances, but to enable the calibre of these loans to travel here in a complex environment is a result of considerable logistical planning and incredible collaboration with our fantastic colleagues at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,” Ellwood said.
The exhibition will traverse the trajectory of impressionist thought and practice in 10 sections, focusing on the preferred subjects and key influences of the period, from the painters of the Barbizon school’s influence on Monet’s outdoor work, to still-life paintings and street scenes.
“For someone who’s not super-familiar with impressionism, this is a very welcome spot to discover it,” said Katie Hanson, curator, Art of Europe at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
“The word ‘impression’, in the parlance of the artists’ time, was a rapid notation of an effect of weather – really valorising that quick look at the world around them as something that they wanted to share,” Hanson said. “That quick look wasn’t just something that they needed to take home and work up into a finished tableau in the studio; it was something that had merit in and of itself.
“We think visitors will delight in the sheer beauty of these dynamic and vividly coloured paintings, which are enduring in their appeal more than 100 years after they were created,” said Ellwood.
“Impressionist works represent a true celebration of the splendour of nature and the humanity the artists imbued in each painting, truly evoking the glorious natural surrounds in which they were painted – ‘en plein air’ [in the open air].”
Running concurrently with French Impressionism will be a companion showcase of Australian impressionists.
Titled She-Oak and Sunlight, the show will feature 270 works from local artists including Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Clara Southern and Jane Sutherland, drawn from the NGV’s collection as well as the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia and other private and public collections around the country.
Highlights of She-Oak and Sunlight include Roberts’ well-known 1890 painting, Shearing the Rams; Arthur Streeton’s newly restored 1896 depiction of the Hawkesbury River, The Purple Noon’s Transparent Might; and Clara Southern’s 1900 work, An Old Bee Farm.
“There’s always something really informative about seeing two different takes on a similar subject matter, on a similar mode of working,” Hanson said. “I think it is a really wonderful opportunity that visitors will be afforded by having both shows coincident.”
Other exhibitions unveiled at Monday’s announcement include the first major retrospective of the work of Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung artist Maree Clarke; the first major Australian survey of New York-based contemporary artist Camille Henrot; and a world exclusive exhibition of more than 160 works on paper by Francisco Goya.
In December, the NGV will also present Queer, an exploration of the gallery’s collection through a queer lens, including works from antiquity to the present day.
The NGV reopened on 23 November after shutting its doors for months through Melbourne’s multiple Covid-19 lockdowns.
The gallery’s second Triennial, which opened in December, has proven extremely popular, with nearly 300,000 people having attended so far, despite the venue’s reduced capacity due to Victoria’s Covid restrictions.
• The Triennial runs until 18 April at NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
• French Impressionism: From the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, opens 4 June at NGV International
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