The Grimaldi Forum seems to excel itself every year with its summer exhibitions, not only with the choice of subject, but also with the panache of its presentation.
This year it’s one of the greatest painters of the Impressionist era in the spotlight, and it will be almost impossible to follow the Monet that opens on Saturday, July 8 at Monaco’s preeminent exhibition venue.
On its own, of course, panache is not enough. Monet in Full Light has been crafted by committed Impressionist enthusiast Marianne Mathieu over a period of three years and she has succeeded brilliantly in collecting 100 Monet works in one place to tell their own story.
Together they reflect the artist’s journey from a representative style to full-blown and almost abstract Impressionism, as the artist necessarily relegated form to imagination.
There is very little in common between Renoir’s lyrical Luncheon at the Boating Party, for example, and Monet’s attempts at capturing the quality of light itself, searching for the essence of an element. Famously, the two painters were good friends, but they were also very different.
If it achieves nothing else Monet in Full Light will demarcate the artist’s work from other great Impressionists in a way that has never been done before. It is very fitting that this should be achieved in Monaco, one of Monet’s preferred destinations on the Riviera.
For the exhibition organisers there is a simple ambition; that everyone leaving the exhibition will have learned something about Monet they didn’t know before.
Monet in Full Light is at the Grimaldi Forum until September 3. Open each day from 10:00 until 18:00. Bookings can be made here
Related article: https://news.mc/2023/06/06/monet-came-to-monaco-and-found-the-light/
One of Monet’s paintings of Tete de Chien from Roquebrune
