Monet's masterpiece that started Impressionism goes to China. Fourth trip in five years

Transfer to China for Impression, soleil levant, the 1872 masterpiece with which Claude Monet (Paris, 1840 - Giverny, 1926) kicked offImpressionism, since it is the painting from which the entire movement takes its name. The work is kept at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris and is about to leave France for a Chinese trip, for an exhibition that will keep the progenitor of Impressionism in the Far East from Sept. 17, 2020 to Jan. 3, 2021: the show will be held at the One Art Museum in Shanghai. Four months during which the French and tourists who have planned a trip to Paris will not be able to see the work (in fact, the 14-day quarantine period required by Chinese regulations must be added: the painting will therefore leave the museum next August 30). Exclusively revealing the news is the newspaper Le Figaro, in an article by Eric Biétry-Rivierre.

“Covid-19,” explained Marianne Mathieu, scientific director of the Musée Marmottan Monet, "has ruined our activities abroad. Before the pandemic, we were producing three to four events a year, thanks to which our institute was 100 percent self-financing. In addition, at the beginning of March, a presentation of some of our masterpieces was scheduled to take place in Shanghai, but it was canceled, which had never happened to us before. We then replaced it with impressionisti' target='_blank'>a stop in Bologna, but that too was postponed at the last minute and our selection of works was therefore confined there. Finally, another Monet exhibition planned in New Zealand this month was also canceled."

So as soon as the situation was unblocked, the Marmottan Monet restarted plans to bring the museum’s works to China, including the Parisian artist’s masterpiece. The Shanghai exhibition will feature a display of Monet’s canvases along with prints by Hokusai and Hiroshige to show the public the influences Japanese art had on the father of Impressionism. Then there will be canvases by two contemporary French artists (Vicky Colombet and Gérard Fromanger) who were inspired by the Impressionists. And there will also be a 3-D reconstruction of the port of Le Havre in 1872. The museum assures that this is a heartfelt exhibition: "the loan of Impression, soleil levant is often requested of us,“ Mathieu continues. ”But our policy is that the painting is lent only if the exhibition in which it is to be displayed has a scholarly interest. But also if there is a symbolic interest. And that is the case with this exhibition: the trip of Impression to Shanghai marks the resumption of activities among museums, even the most distant ones."

For Impression, soleil levant this is even the fourth trip in five years: in practice, it is necessary to zero in on the right time to be able to see the masterpiece in its location. Indeed, the work was, in 2015, in Tokyo and Kyoto, in 2017 in Le Havre, and in 2019 in Canberra. In addition, a further trip is already planned, in 2023, to Potsdam, Germany, for an exhibition in which the painting will be displayed along with its pendant, Port du Havre, effet de nuit. There is no pose, in short, for one of the fundamental works of art history.

Pictured: Claude Monet, Impression: soleil levant (1872; oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm; Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet)

Monet's masterpiece that started Impressionism goes to China. Fourth trip in five years

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