View Monet and Renoir painting side by side

Room 41 in the National Gallery in London currently has two very famous paintings hanging next to one another. They are the two paintings created of La Grenouillère by Claud Monet and Pierre Renoir.

Monet and Renoir - Painting Side by Side

The National Gallery has a link to this exhibit - which continues until 22 September 2026 and is free to all visitors before the Renoir painting moves to a new exhibition (see end for more details)
 

The panorama of boats, bathers and people at La Grenouillère
(Left) Bathers at La Grenouillère by Claud Monet (1840-1926)
(Right) La Grenouillère by Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919

I've seen them hung like this before. However what is extremely helpful this time is the diagram which demonstrates how close they were to one another - but looking in different directions.

The two viewpoints of the small island on the River Seine
from the pier of the floating restaurant
Monet in orange and Renoir in grey

They are in effect stood a few feet apart and looking across each other's viewpoint.

Note how if you study the diagram and then look at the paintings next to one another, they are almost a panorama of the scene in front of both men. eg 

• Renoir includes the small island 
• while Monet crops just to the left of the island

The diagram is adapted from one contained in a book called Modernity and Modernism French Painting in the Nineteenth Century Yale University Press 1993 (available online for a low price)

Here are the two paintings in isolation. 

For those who can't get to the London, I've also included the descriptions of the two paintings in the exhibit.

Bathers at La Grenouillère by Claud Monet (1840-1926)
oil on canvas
National Gallery, London

Painted quickly on the spot, this picture has a cursory quality. Adopting an unusual viewpoint and a high horizon, Monet draws the viewer's eye to the river and the boats in the foreground. A wooden pontoon cuts across the middle of canvas, breaking the traditional rules of composition. Rapid dabs of colour suggest bathers and strollers. Avoiding a literal transcription of reality, in this seminal work Monet captures the essence - the impression of a landscape.

La Grenouillère by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

         oil on canvas

on loan from the National Museum Stockholm

Renoir chooses a different viewpoint, to the right of Monet's. He includes the little round islet known as the *camembert' and, to the far right, a floating restaurant. Unlike Monet, Renoir focuses his attention on the fashionable crowd in the centre, populating his canvas with delightful details: a child plays with a boat, while a dog snoozes in the shadow. "La Grenouillère was a perpetual party, and what an assortment of people!" he later recalled.

Two exhibitions of note are coming up - which relate in a way to these two paintings.

Two NEW Exhibitions in London

Royal Society of Marine Artists | Annual Exhibition 2026

North, West and East Galleries at the Mall Galleries - 16 Sep 2026 - 26 Sep 2026 - 10am to 5pm 

The RSMA paint scenes associated with seas and tidal rivers. This particular scene would not have been possible as the Seine is only tidal to Rouen.

(note: the Royal Society of Marine Artists website is not secure i.e. http:// rather than https:// and I never link to insecure websites)

Renoir and Love

Explore the sun-dappled gardens and swirling dance halls of Paris through 40 paintings, brought together from collections across the world.

National Gallery, London

Dates: 3 October 2026 – 31 January 2027

Standard admission

• £20 (off-peak, Sunday-Thursday)
• £25 (Friday and Saturday, and all days in the first two weeks)
• Under 18s go free

Drawing Monet in coloured pencils

One my favourite occupations used to be drawing oil paintings by past masters - in coloured pencil.  

Morning on the Seine early in morning light - a copy of Monet's work in coloured pencils

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One such was "Morning on the Seine" by Claude Monet - in a different colourway - which I drew some years ago. It's prompted me to think I should do more. I know I always learned a huge amount each and every time I copied a painting by an old Master.  

I think the last time this drawing was posted on this blog was back in 2013!

However, for those contemplating the benefits of copying paintings, it's VERY important to remember there's a lot of difference between 

• copying somebody who's out of copyright (like Monet) and 
• copying an image by an artist or photographer whose work is covered by copyright 
• see Copyright Infringement and "Fair Use" - Basics for Art and Artists

Morning on the Seine by Claude Monet

Monet's "Mornings on the Seine" is a series of 21 canvases painted in 1896 and 1897.

Monet often painted the River Seine and its river banks, near his home in Giverny, His aim was to capture the fleeting effects of dawn light on the River Seine n France - and create another series of paintings!

• He painted the same scene at different stages of sunrise and in a variety of weather conditions.
• He often painted from his specially equipped boat which he used as a floating studio. 
• Working from before dawn his aim was to record the subtle changes in color and atmosphere as the sun rose
• Monet often painted emphasising misty, blue, green, pink and purple tones.

Having patiently scouted out views along the river, Monet then painted the pictures from a boat that he had converted into a floating studio. For an extended period he rose by dawn in order to paint the changing effects of light as the sun came up. He then lined up the canvases on easels in his studio to complete them together as a series. Fifteen were shown at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1898. Metropolitan Museum of Art

You can see some of the paintings below. They're all called Morning on the Seine near Giverny 

• Metropolitan Museum of Art  (New York, USA)
• White House Historical Association (Washington DC) - a gift to the White House in memory of John F Kennedy
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston MA)
• North Carolina Art Museum (North Carolina) 
• The National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo, Japan - not currently on display)

10th Anniversary Prize Commission for Landscape Artist of the Year

One of the artists who has applied for the next series of Landscape Artist of the Year - by the deadline for entries of 3rd May 2024 - will win a £10,000 commission.

Last week Sky Arts announced the organisation which will receive the commission and the  location of the 10th Anniversary Prize Commission for the next series of Landscape Artist of the Year has been announced.

• The Courtauld Gallery will be the recipient of the £10,000 Prize Commission - meaning the winner will have their commission painting hung in the Courtauld. (You can see online versions of paintings in the Courtauld Collection - but always best to visit to see the real thing and appreciate its impact)
• The location for the Commission will be the South of France

Following in the footsteps of famous painters like Monet, Cezanne and Van Gogh, the winning artist will travel to the south of France to create a work inspired by one of the most famous coastlines in the word.

At this point I'll just insert my sketch of Monet's painting of Antibes in the 'old' Courtauld Gallery!

My sketch of Monet's painting of Antibes in the Courtauld Gallery

plus Cezanne's landscape painting of Mont St. Victoire - also in the Courtauld

The Montagne Saint-Victoire (c.1887) by Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

oil on canvas

Samuel Courtauld Trust: Courtauld Gift 1932

I've also tried drawing the landscape in the south of France like Van Gogh and have certainly visited a number of places which he drew - and a number of places where he drew from.

If you want to get more insight into what that Commission trip might involve - just take a look at this article for Architectural Digest - An Art Lover’s Road Trip Through the South of France. I've done all of it apart from the last bit - and it is a location which provides masses of inspiration. 

Applications close on Friday 3rd May and the filming starts in June.
You can read more about how to enter via my blog post Call for Entries: Landscape Artist of the Year Series Ten

Plus Ça Change - Art on Mondays on BBC4

Be forewarned - this is a bit of a rant - PLUS Quite a lot of information about "Art on Monday Nights" on BBC Four

At a time when art programmes seem to be burgeoning and successful (or soon to be) on Sky Arts, Channel 4 and Channel 5, we are faced with a BBC which is producing archive only programmes on BBC4 which has, traditionally, been the art channel. (Of which more below - including 'Art on Monday Nights on BBC Four)

I wrote about the planned demise of BBC4 as an originator of art programmes back in March 2021 - as did others - see 

• What happens to art after the demise of BBC Four?
• Don’t let BBC4 become yet another dusty attic full of old shows | The Times
• BBC4’s commissioning remit slashed | Televisual

It's maybe even more pertinent now that Nadine Dorries (who I want to be very rude about but will instead ignore her) has "got her teeth" into The BBC Licence Fee. This is the woman who announces this will be the last licence fee settlement and then announces there will be a discussion and no decisions have been made as yet. Yet more political lies and dissembling??

A statement has been made by the Director General and the Chair of The BBC about the proposal for the Licence Fee Settlement - which has for of code for "more cuts to come' 

As a result recent news coverage includes some significant criticism - and I want to add to it!

• Art critics hit back at UK government plans to reform the BBC | The Art Newspaper (today)

As a film maker who does lots of work abroad I cannot stress enough how much admiration and warmth there is out there for the BBC. All round the world it's revered and envied. Except, it seems, by the yobs and vandals of our government. Is there anything they won't destroy?

— WALDEMAR JANUSZCZAK (@JANUSZCZAK) January 17, 2022

Art on Monday Nights on BBC4

What we're getting on BBC4 at the moment is what I'm calling "Art on Monday Nights" - which is basically a lot of REPEATS or compilations of REPEATS

So this was yesterday evening

The title of the first episode of Art of France "Plus Ça Change" was, in the circumstances, very pertinent!

Yesterday evening we had 

• The Impressionists - Painting and Revolution - a first rate series by critic Waldemar Januszczak first shown in 2011 (I could tell it was some time ago because he looked so young and thin!) - which I reviewed back in 2011 - see The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution - Gang of Four | Making A Mark (July 16th 2011)
• Art on The BBC - Episode 3 on Monet - a new compilation programme of excerpts from past programmes. 
• Art of France (Series 1) with Andrew Graham Dixon - first shown in 2017 and well worth watching again. READ my review BBCFour Art of France - with Andrew Graham-Dixon

• What do Artists do all day - Frank Bowling's Abstract World (2019)
• Whoever heard of a Black Artist? Britain's Hidden Art (first shown in July 2018)

Links you may need to be aware of (if not already) are

• Art on BBC Four (1966 - 2020) - a listing of all the programmes which were made by BBC4 in the past - to give you some sense of what has been lost due to the cuts already - NOT ALL OF WHICH ARE AVAILBLE VIA IPLAYER! So basically just a tease.
• BBC Four - Art on The BBC - the current offering which recaps past programmes referencing great artists and includes:
• The Great Salvador Dali
• Van Gogh - Life and Art
• Monet - The French Revolutionary
• Turner - Light and Landscape

The main problem with the BBC website is it doesn't have a way looking up ART programmes - as opposed to "Arts" - and this is what The BBC means by Arts, Culture and Media

The main issue is NOT that it's not worth looking again at programmes in the Archive - If they were good programmes the first time then they're definitely worth another look. 

BUT but access and choice both need to be improved

• they need to be available ALL THE TIME via iPlayer (i.e. we've already paid for these!)
• they need to contained in a list so that people can identify what's worth watching
• and the BBC STILL NEEDS TO MAKE NEW PROGRAMMES!!

The only bright spot on the horizon is that there seemed to be a significant lobby of MPs in the debate yesterday who recognised that certain aspects of The BBC should not be externalised - and the arts was one of them.

REVIEW: David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020

This morning I went to see David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 at the Royal Academy of Arts. Below are some notes I made while in the exhibition - of assorted thoughts it prompted.

It was the earliest time I could view and the ticket has been on my wall for months! The exhibition finishes on the 26th September and I'd be very surprised if there are any tickets left. 

It's moved from the galleries where they normally hold the Summer/Winter Exhibition (because of the hang for 2021) to The Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries in the Burlington Gardens part of the Royal Academy of Arts. It appear they've maybe been hung closer together than in the video below of the hang in the main galleries.

You can find the preamble introducing the exhibition on the RA website - and new the works  in this video

You can also download a large print guide of the paper publication you collect on going into the exhibition. This provides dates for th artworks but not times of day- which I think he did in previous exhibitions

Notes on an exhibition by David Hockney

There are no paintings in conventional art media - they are all done in digital software on his iPad.  There are 116 works in total.

These are the images released as press pics - but to be honest while some are good they don't include the best ones. See if you agree with me when you watch the video.

All works by David Hockney. © David Hockney

Clockwise from top left: No. 125, 19th March 2020. iPad painting. No. 340, 21st May 2020. iPad painting. No.186,11thApril2020.iPadpainting. No. 118, 16th March 2020. iPad painting. No. 316, 30th April 2020. iPad painting. No. 88, 3rd March 2020. iPad painting.No. 370, 2nd May 2020. iPad painting. No. 259, 24th April 2020. iPad painting. No. 133, 23rd March 2020. iPad painting.

The sum of the parts

The exhibition is greater than the sum of the parts and it's a mistake to look at them as individual paintings

The impact of seeing them hung - in themes or series - close together on a wall reminds me of exhibitions of Monet's Haystacks (see Monet's series paintings - stacks of wheat (2008) - from which the following quote comes)

Monet was adamant that the series of paintings had an aesthetic quality of its own and that the value of the paintings could only really be appreciated when they were all seen together.

The artworks present well on the background of a dark teal wall. Some would look like quite insipid on an ivory or light coloured wall - but with a dark background they have more impact.

The series I liked the best included:

• The nocturnes - with very bright moons and deep blue skies - which interestingly were not hung together
• the blossom - trees / branches
• plants in pots - indoor and outside (eg 15 and 18 daffodils outside and in bowl indoors)
• pond paintings
• paintings of rain

Monet and series paintings in Normady

It then occurred to me that one of the features of Hockney is that he has at various times reflected on various great artists of the past and created his own interpretation of their works.

It struck me that it's no coincidence that he did these in Normany which is Monet's "home turf" - and that Monet was particularly given to creating series of paintings of the same motifs - seen in different weather / seasons / time of day

A number of the motifs in this exhibition are portrayed in a similar way.

Seeing pictures 

One of Hockney's skills is the ability to "see pictures". A lot of what he's portraying is of absolutely no consequence. Indeed many have commented that his paintings are similar.

I think those critical of the iPad paintings in this exhibition forget two things:

• his age - there are very few artists who continue to create as well a they did in the past as they near he end of their life
• the context - However at a time when the world turned upside down, recording the simple and the familiar and looking closer at nature is something a lot of people did to help keep a grasp on what is real. (I took to posting my photos of plants every day on my Facebook account - from the same date in the past - to keep a grasp on the world outside when we were locked up at home - when Hockney was creating these artworks. Today I posted #492).

What I noticed was that some of the subjects he took great care over - the notable examples being the trees in full blossom - while others which held less interest (bare trees with no foliage) seemed to receive less attention. 

No 57 was particularly joyful and I was surprised not to see it chosen as an image for the postcards.

The colour of skies

I realised partway round how important the colour of the sky was to some of the images and what a variety of colours he had used for skies

Mark-making

He uses the mark-making available in his Brushes software - but I sometimes want to see him experiment more with available software to see what else it can do.... 

The mark-making hasn't really changed over the last decade. Which is a pity.

The visitors

A very white set of visitors in terms of both skin and hair. It's always interesting to see what older ladies think is appropriate dress for a Hockney exhibition at the RA - but then right now, an expedition into central London is something to appreciate and I dare ay a lot were going out for a very nice lunch afterwards

Which I would have been too - but my ankle rebelled....

Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr resumes with Monet's Water Lilies

Series 2 of Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr - opens with Monet's Water Lilies

A year ago, back in the first lockdown in 2020, Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr on Channel 5 was a new programme which was a bright spark for all those bereft of visits to art galleries and museums. (see Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr 22 June 2020)

...and then it stopped after Episode 3!

So I did some digging about what had happened and was able to report back in Good news re Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr - in which 

• I reported that Channel 5 had told me that it would resume later in the year.
• reviewed the series to date and how it had been received
• commented on the need for museums to make more art available online
  

Presumably that statement from Channel 5 was made with the idea that nothing much would happen after the first lockdown. In other words, the events of the latter part of 2020 and first part of 2021 had clearly NOT been anticipated.

Which is why we are only now seeing (what I hope are) the next three episodes of this series.

Series 2

I'm absolutely certain one of the future programmes is going to be about Monet's Water Lilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris (because of the pics for the series). These paintings absolutely overwhelmed me and filled my eyes with tears the first time I saw them. I was incredibly lucky to see them for the very first time incredibly early one Saturday morning in the late 80s with nobody else in the room. I'd arrived in Paris on the Motorail from Provence (a service which is no longer available!). My visit to the water lilies was followed by a very nice lunch near the L'Orangerie and my driving out to Giverny to visit Monet's garden - and then to Calais for the ferry and back home to London.

A day I will never ever forget - I've got a very clear visual memory of it even now!

Series 2 comprises:

• Episode 1 - Water Lilies - by Claude Monet
  
• Episode 2 - The Hay Wain - by John Constable on Friday 18th June 2021
  
• Episode 3 - ??

I don't know if there are going to be more episodes after the Hay Wain as there's nothing on the website. As indicated in one of my earlier blog posts about this series, the introduction to the series suggests the following are in the pipeline

• Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (Le Galerie degli Uffizi, Florence)
• Rembrandt van Rijn's The Night Watch (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
• Diego Velázquez's The Toilet of Venus (The Rokeby Venus) (National Gallery)
• John Millais's Ophelia (Tate Britain)

READ MORE about Water Lilies by Monet on this blog!

• Gardens in Art: Monet's final Nympheas (30 September 2007) 
  
• Gardens in Art: Monet and the water garden at Giverny (29 September 2007) 
• Gardens in Art continues - with Monet (4 September 2007)

You can also take a virtual visit to Monet's Waterlilies in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris

Plus see my videos of them - as seen back in September 2009. The first is a proper video - of each room at the Musée de l'Orangerie devoted to "The Grand Decorations"

The next one is a slideshow

Series 1

This covered the following paintings and is available on demand on Channel 5. These were:

• EPISODE 1 - Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
• EPISODE 2 - Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh
• EPISODE 3 - The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner

Note that on the Channel 5 Page for the episodes, they've got the wrong paintings with every Episode!  

 

Images for every episode are WRONG!

 

I love the fact Channel 5 is getting involved with Art on Television - and this is a good series - but a bit more attention to presentation online would not go amiss!
 

LOCKDOWN ART#1: Working in a Series #1

We are now in the third TOTAL LOCKDOWN in the UK - and it's winter - so I'm going to create some resources for artists wanting:

• to learn more about art and/or 
• some stimuli for making art - within the constraints of the lockdown limitations on where we can go and what we can do.

Initially I'll be looking at my past blog projects about

• working in a series 
• understanding colour
• understanding composition.

A Making A Mark Project - Working in a Series

Back in 2008, I developed a series of posts on my art blog "Making A Mark" about working in a series as an artist - and subsequently developed a site (now unpublished) about "working in series".

I'm resurrecting those posts - or links to them - on this blog in order to provide a resource for those who would like to have a go at developing a series.

These blog posts explored:

• reasons why artists work in a series
• reviewed Monet and his series paintings
• considered specific series by Monet - the stacks of wheat and the paintings of Rouen Cathdral

These are those blog posts. Bear in mind when you read a post that, while the general principles and points made are perennial, some of the details re links to individual artists may have changed since it was first published.

• A Making A Mark Project - Working in a series - This post starts my project about working in a series
• What are your reasons for working in a series? - I've come to the conclusion there are probably four main categories of reasons why artists work in a series. Within each category there are more specific reasons. 
• investigate and explore - subject 
• investigate and explore - technique 
• emotional

• Making A Mark Poll: What's the main reason why you work in a series? - The question is: What's your MAIN reason for working in a series? With the emphasis being on the word MAIN. Having recognised there's lots of reasons why we work in series I want to try and pin it down a bit more and see if you can work out which is usually the dominant reason for you.

• Why and how Monet developed his series paintings - This post looks at:
• why Monet painted series paintings
• when he painted his series paintings
• the various reasons leading to his choice of subject matter
• which paintings are regarded as part of his series paintings
• and finally, how he actually designed and painted the series paintings from a practice perspective.

Wheatstacks (end of summer) 1890-91 - Claud Monet
Oil on canvas, 60 x 100 cm (23 5/8 x 39 3/8 in);
The Art Institute of Chicago

• Monet's series paintings - stacks of wheat - About the motif, design and execution of the series of paintings of stacks of wheat
• Monet's series paintings - Rouen cathedral - An account of Monet's series paintings of Rouen Cathedral

La cathédrale dans le brouillard 

by Claude Monet

(included in the Sotheby's sale on 3rd November 2008)

12 good reasons to paint in a series

Tomorrow I'll be looking at 12 good reasons to paint in a series and thereafter will 

• explore each reason further
• with links to further information, images and resources about famous artists who produce work in a series.

Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr

Andrew Marr is currently telling the stories behind some of the world's greatest paintings by famous painters on Channel 5. 

works made with almost supernatural skills, fierce passion and extraordinary brainpower
Andrew Marr

The World's Greatest Paintings with Andrew Marr (on Channel 5)

I'd have missed it altogether if "he who must not be bored" hadn't spotted it and asked me if I was watching the series. On which basis I'm assuming a few other people may also not be aware that this series is currently available to view.

I very much recommend the series. Andrew Marr (who describes himself on Twitter as elderly amateur painter and presenter of the BBC1 Andrew Marr Show) is surprisingly good at both telling both the story and indicating his appreciation of the artwork. You also get to find out all sorts of details you never knew before.

How much of it is Marr and how much of it is research by art history experts is unclear - but the programmes certainly have a distinct Marr flavour to them. He's no stooge for the words of others.

It's also great for all those who will never ever get to the Museums in which you can find these paintings on view 

Great Paintings of the World

You can watch on Channel 5 at 6.15pm - 7.05pm on Saturday evening. If using on demand some are different timings e.g. 8.15pm

Paintings covered to date (plus the link to the episode on Channel 5 on Demand) are:

• Episode 1: Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (The Louvre) - The story of the portrait that attracts eight million onlookers every year, Da Vinci's the Mona Lisa - which didn't become famous until it was stolen in 1911

It’s hard to imagine Simon Schama devoting a programme to the Mona Lisa. Come on, she’s art’s queen of clichés, a tourist magnet drawing crowds to grab selfies. But snobbery be damned, because Andrew Marr opens his series on great paintings by properly examining why this modest portrait – not even his favourite work by Leonardo da Vinci, he says – has become the most recognisable work of art there is.

He does a good job, too, taking us back to the “culturally swaggering” world of Renaissance Florence, where Leonardo was in his 50s by the time he set about painting the young wife of one of his father’s clients. That sideways pose and direct gaze were revolutionary, we gather; the use of “sfumato” blurring around her mouth was the special effect that brought the about-to-smile half-smile to life; and it wasn’t until 1911 that the painting became a global celebrity – by being stolen. (Radio Times)

• Episode 2: Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh (National Gallery) 

Screen capture from Radio Times which is devoting an article to each episode (so far)

• Episode 3: The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner (National Gallery) - the story behind The Fighting Temeraire, JMW Turner's masterpiece, once voted to be the nation's favourite painting.

With the last one I loved the fact he pointed out all the things wrong with the painting! For example - being painted the wrong way round - because the setting sun should have been on the other side of the painting if it was being towed up the River Thames to Rotherhithe (speaks woman who worked this out a long time ago given the fact she is regularly blinded by sun setting in the west at her home in Bow immediately north of Rotherhithe!)

UPDATE: MY APOLOGIES

Below is what I wrote when I thought the series was 10 programmes - but looking back now at Radio Times they've got it listed as a series of 3 programmes.

I'm now wondering if the discontinuity between the press release material I found (see below) and the reality is down to the Pandemic - and the rest will come later?

A new TV series is set to tell the story behind ten of the greatest painting in the world - but according to a new study, only six per cent of adults can correctly identify them. article about the new series (my bold)

PS They definitely had a trailer for the next episode re Picasso at the end of Episode 3 when I watched!!  Plus as you will realise the opening shots all involve the paintings listed below - strongly suggesting more episodes to come

I'll update again if I find out more.

Next week's episode is going to focus on The Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso (Tate Britain) - which is, of course all about Guernica and the model for the painting was Dora Maar who was his mistress between 1938 and 1944.

I'm speculating what the remaining seven "iconic paintings" will be. If the introduction to the series is anything to go by I'm expecting

• Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (Le Galerie degli Uffizi, Florence)
• Rembrandt van Rijn's The Night Watch (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
• Diego Velázquez's The Toilet of Venus (The Rokeby Venus) (National Gallery)
• John Constable's The Hay Wain (National Gallery)
• John Millais's Ophelia (Tate Britain)
• Claud Monet's Water Lilies - the murals (Musée de l'Orangerie)

Andrew Marr sat in the basement of L'Orangerie - viewing one of Monet's great paintings of water lilies

I'm absolutely certain one of the future programmes is going to be about Monet's Water Lilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris (because of the pics for the series). These paintings absolutely overwhelmed me and filled my eyes with tears the first time I saw them. I was incredibly lucky to see them for the very first time incredibly early one Saturday morning in the late 80s with nobody else in the room. I'd arrived in Paris on the Motorail from Provence (a service which is no longer available!). My visit to the water lilies was followed by a very nice lunch near the L'Orangerie and my driving out to Giverny to visit Monet's garden - and then to Calais for the ferry and back home to London.

A day I will never ever forget - I've got a very clear visual memory of it even now!

Anyway - back to the topic - I very much recommend this series of programmes and suggest you catch up with the first three episodes and then watch the rest. You won't regret it.

VIDEO: Painting the Modern Garden

One of the new initiatives by Museums during the Lockdown has been better promotion of the Exhibitions on Screen films made in the past in association with different art galleries and museums.

This week the Royal Academy of Arts has posted a video related to its 2016 Exhibition about Painting The Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse.

Joaquin Sorolla, Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1911. Oil on canvas, 150 x 225.5 cm.
On loan from the Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY. Photo
© Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York;

Back in 2016, we filled our Main Galleries with all the vibrant colours of the garden, as we traced its many forms through a period of great social change and innovation in the arts.
Discover the paintings of some of the most important artists of the early twentieth century exploring the theme, including Renoir, Cezanne, Pissarro, Manet, Sargent, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, Matisse, Klimt and Klee.

A 90 minute DOCUMENTARY was made about ‘Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse’. 

• This video is available FOR FREE via the link above and YouTube (see small version below)
• both sources of the video provide HD resolution if desired.

Originally released in cinemas, this ‘Exhibition on Screen’ film takes us back to our landmark exhibition, ‘Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse’, examining the role gardens played in the evolution of art from the early 1860s through to the 1920s.

One page on the RA website Video: Inside the Artists’ Gardens provides

• access to videos of the gardens of various artists 
• these can be watched full screen 
• via the above page or via a YouTube playlist associated with the exhibition

Both are available at 1080 HD - but you have to choose this.

Using the work of Monet as a starting point, this landmark exhibition (30 Jan–20 April 2016) examines the role gardens played in the evolution of art from the early 1860s through to the 1920s. In this video series we take you into the gardens of artists such as Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard and Emil Nolde.

The documentary video is also available via Seventh Art Productions

Review: Monet and Architecture at the National Gallery

I highly recommend, if you're in London this summer, that you go and see Monet and Architecture at the National Gallery - until 29th July. 

The 75 paintings in the exhibition spans 1860 - 1912 and includes series paintings of Rouen, London and Venice and wonderful paintings of places he knew well in Normandy, Paris, the Netherlands and Italy.

Some 25% of the paintings are ones in private collections - making this probably the only time you will ever see them.

While I'm not 100% behind the curator's analysis of what the exhibition is about, I'm absolutely delighted that there are so many excellent paintings on display - including some of my all time favourites!

The thing is Monet did not paint architecture per se - not like those who simply love architecture. He didn't even paint "things". What he was painting was the light and colour around rather large equivalents of squares and oblongs - as per the famous quotation below.

Try to forget what objects you have before you - a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, 'Here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow,' and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact colour and shape, until it gives you your own impression of the scene before you.

Rouen Cathedral series - dawn on the right (east) and sunset on the left (west)

It was an absolute joy to be able to see the Rouen series from a decent distance so you could admire  them all together.

However I doubt if you'll be able to do that once the hordes arrive - unless you make a point of going late in the day and waiting until almost everybody has left!

That's because I'm very sure this is going to be a very popular exhibition. The National Gallery has been able to assemble some world class paintings from public and private collections from all over the world. Some I have never seen before in exhibitions or books.

What follows is an introduction to the exhibition - with images to give you a sense of what it looks like - and a note of how the exhibition works

I must emphasise that no book and certainly no blog post can ever emulate the way these paintings when viewed face to canvas. Some of them are quite extraordinary.

The structure of the exhibition

The exhibition is in the galleries in the basement of the Sainsbury Wing - which always seems to be the favoured location for any exhibitions which have enormously valuable paintings! It's very secure.

There are three sections to the exhibition

• The Village and the Picturesque (3 rooms)
• The City and Modern (2 rooms)
• The Monument and the Mysterious ( 2 rooms)

Rockefeller Collection on public show at Christies London

Once in a while, a really significant collection of art and artifacts rolls into town - and it's possible to see the works on exhibition prior to a grand auction - and bid on them if you feel so inclined!

The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller is being auctioned in New York in at Christie’s Rockefeller Center in New York in late spring. Prior to this auction, the most valuable collection ever previously offered at auction was the Collection Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Bergé in 2009 at Christie’s Paris which achieved more than US$400 million / € 373,935,500

CLAUDE MONET (1840–1926)
Nymphéas en fleur
© Christie’s Images Ltd
oil on canvas 63 in. x 71 in. (160 x 178 cm.)
Painted circa 1914-1917

This is the largest auction ever entirely dedicated to raising funds for philanthropic causes. (see note at end)

“Eventually all these objects which have brought so much pleasure to Peggy and me will go out into the world and will again be available to other caretakers who, hopefully, will derive the same satisfaction and joy from them as we have over these past several decades.” David Rockefeller

Prior to this it is touring the world and the preview dates for the exhibition of works from the collection at Christies Galleries are as follows:

• London 21 February – 8 March 2018
• Beijing 6 – 7 April 2018
• Paris 16 – 21 April 2018
• Los Angeles 6 – 12 April 2018, and 
• Shanghai 10 – 11 April 2018

The auction sale will take place in the Spring (dates to be announced) at 20 Rockefella Plaza in New York.  It's expected that the sale will offer 1500 works overall split across auctions taking place in New York during the week of May 7.

Important pieces include:

• Claude Monet's Nympheas en fleur (c.1914-1917) - see above
• what will be the most valuable Matisse painting ever offered at auction to date
• a rather lovely Rose Period Picasso which originally came from the Gertrude Stein Collection

The extended public exhibition will feature significant works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Juan Gris, Paul Signac, Edouard Manet, Paul Gauguin, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, and Edward Hopper, among others

Below you can see the images in different contexts and learn something of how they were acquired.

Thanksgiving DinDons

Best wishes to all my American Readers who are celebrating Thanksgiving.

Les Dindons
a.k.a. The Turkeys at Montgeron (1877) by Claude Monet
oil on canvas, 174 x 172cm
Musee d'Orsay

This is my photo, taken nearly a decade ago at the Musee d'Orsay, of a 140 year old painting of turkeys. Plus the accompanying label identifying its title as "Les Dindons" by Claude Monet

They have a curious story.

The turkeys - the Dindons - were painted by Monet in 1877 in the grounds of the Chateau of Rottenburg at Montgeron (just south of Paris) which was the home of Ernest Hoschedé, a wealthy department store magnate who was also an art collector and Monet's patron.

This painting is unique insofar as:

• this is the only painting I know in which Claude Monet painted birds. 
• It was planned and painted as part of series of four decorative panels commissioned for the Chateau at Montgeron

As it happens the same year that this painting was painted, Hoschedé went bankrupt and his wife Alice and their children moved in with the Monets at Vertheuil while Hoschedé continued to try and work in Paris and subsequently moved to Belgium.

Monet's wife Camille had become ill with tuberculosis the previous year (1876). Then she gave birth to their second son in March 1878 - so having a second woman around may well have been a godsend.

Camille subsequently died (of cancer) on 5 September 1879 at the age of thirty-two - and Alice Hoschedé then helped Monet to raise his two sons, Jean and Michel.

Monet finally married Alice Hoschedé in 1892 after the death of her first husband.

Alice died in 1911 and Monet in 1926.

What happened to the painting?

The painting was exhibited at the Third Impressionist Exhibition 140 years ago in 1877 - and seems to have been sold

The third exhibition is considered “the most balanced and coherent” of the eight exhibitions held over a dozen years. Caillebotte contrived, solicited and arranged for what he wanted to see as a “democratic” exhibition of 230 works that represented 18 artists and attracted around fifteen thousand visitors in its thirty-day run. Gustave Caillebotte’s Dinner Invitation Leads to the Exquisite Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877

Timeline of Ownership 

It's clear the painting was sold following the bankruptcy and the timeline of ownership is interesting.

• from 1878, collection G. de Nittis, Paris
• from 1884, in the Theodore Duret collection, Paris
• 1894, sale of the Théodore Duret collection, paintings and pastels, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, March 19, 1894, n ° 24
• from 1894, in the Théodore Duret collection 
• bought on sale on March 19, 1894
• from 1903 to 1906, in the collection François Depeaux, Rouen1906, sale of the Depeaux collection, Paris, Georges Petit Gallery, May 31 and June 1, 1906, No. 27
• from 1906 to 1944, in the collection of the princess Edmond de Polignac, born Miss Winnaretta Singer, then became princess of Scey-Montbéliard (acquired on the sale of Depeaux collection of May 31 and June 1)
• 1947, accepted by the State as legacy of Princess Edmond de Polignac to the National Museums for the Louvre Museum (committee of 27/06/1945, council of 03/07/1945, decree of 19/01/1947)
• from 1944 to 1947, Louvre Museum, Paris
• 1947, attributed to the Louvre Museum, Paris
• from 1947 to 1986, Louvre Museum, Jeu de Paume Gallery, Paris
• 1986, assigned to the Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Exhibitions

After its exhibition in 1877 it didn't get out much - until 1980 - after which it has been exhibited all over the world!

• Third impressionist exhibition, Paris, France, 1877
• Claude Monet, A. Rodin, Paris, France, 1889
• World and International Exhibition, Brussels, Belgium, 1910
• Monet, Paris, France, 1928
• Claude Monet: retrospective exhibition, Paris, France, 1931
• Exhibition of masters of English 19th century painting, London, United Kingdom, 1936National Museums: New Acquisitions 1939-1945, Paris, France, 1945
• French painting in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Nice, France, 1955Tribute to Claude Monet, Paris, France, 1980
• Monet, Tokyo, Japan, 1982Monet, Kyoto, Japan, 1982
• The new painting impressionism 1874-1886, San Francisco, USA, 1986
• The New Painting - Impressionism 1874-1886, Washington, United States, 1986
• Claude Monet - Auguste Rodin, centenary of the 1889 exhibition, Paris, France, 1989
• Monet: A Retrospective, Tokyo, Japan, 1994
• Monet: A Retrospective, Nagoya, Japan, 1994
• Monet: A Retrospective, Hiroshima, Japan, 1994Claude Monet: 1840-1926, Chicago, United States, 1995
• Impresionismo: A Nuevo Renacimiento, Madrid, Spain, 2010
• Birth of Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Orsay Museum, San Francisco, USA, 2010
• Claude Monet 1840-1926, Paris, France, 2010

'Inventing Impressionism' not affected by National Gallery strike

Those wanting to catch the last week of Inventing Impressionism at the National Gallery should not be put off by news of a 10 day strike by National Gallery security staff. The striking staff no longer provide security for the external exhibitions in the Sainsbury Wing where the exhibition is being held. Thus the opening of the exhibition is unaffected.

The banners outside the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery

I sometimes think the NG staff forget that the purpose of public funding for the museum is to allow people access to the art.

The gallery has been running very largely on "office hours" for a very long time. That effectively means that those who work during the day cannot get to see exhibitions easily during the week. Which means enduring a packed out gallery at the weekend. (Make no mistake, the National Gallery is a VERY popular gallery)

Anything which enables more people to see the art is a good thing in my book. The initiatives by the National gallery to make this happen have my full support.

The National Gallery is a public asset and we have a duty to ensure the collection and the Gallery itself is accessible as much as possible to as many people as possible. We take this task seriously and our ongoing Modernisation Programme is designed to encourage a broader (and younger) audience to access the wealth of cultural inspiration the National Gallery has to offer. In particular, we have ambitious plans to extend further our education programme and public events. National Gallery Statement

Any union which refuses to recognise that the way to protect their members jobs is by negotiating within a framework imposed on publicly funded organisations is the organisational equivalent of a dolt. They need to recognise the enforced changes in public funding and the need to recognise that museums must focus on making their collections more accessible.  Besides which, every other publicly funded service has had to cope with changes to terms and conditions. I really don't see why the security staff at the National Gallery should be the exception to what is now the norm everywhere else.

These are the details of the impact of the strike.

Inventing Impressionism

Here's a reminder of some views of the exhibition which I was invited to view earlier in its run. There's one room which I find simply stunning - as I highlighted earlier.

The exhibition includes a range of paintings I've seen before and seen in other exhibitions = but it's good to see them together within the context of having passed through the hands of Paul Durand-Ruel,  the man who acted as the dealer for paintings by many of the Impressionists.

The exhibition includes a LOT of painting by Monet and Sisley plus paintings by Pissarro, Manet, Degas and Morisot

The paintings of children by Renoir in the exhibition are some of the best portraits I've ever seen by Renoir.  They are just full of colour!

Two large paintings by Renoir in the first room.

Who painted this? #57

Who painted this? #57

An out of season still life this week.  Is the bowl a clue?

Don't forget besides wanting the answers to all the usual questions (see below) I'd also like to hear about what you managed to find out about the artist and painting - and the best answer wins this week's challenge!

How to participate in "Who painted this? #57"

PLEASE make sure you read the rules before posting a comment - and ONLY POST ON THIS BLOG what you think is the answer.

Click this link to read THE RULES for participating in this challenge (this saves having to copy them out for each post!).

In short:

• use your brains not software to find the answer - search using words only on a database of images 
• leave your answer as a comment on this blog - do not leave the answer on Facebook! 
• if correct it will not be published until the next post - which provides the answer 
• if wrong it will be published 
• the winner - who gets a mention and a link on/from this blog - is NOT THIS WEEK the first person to give me a completely correct answer for ALL the things I want to know. It's the person who does all this AND provides the BEST answer (see above)

Who Painted This #56 - The Answer