By Patricia Arrigoni
If you plan to be in San Francisco any time in the next three months you might want to check this out. A stunning new art exhibit has arrived and is on display in San Francisco's classic Legion of Honor.
This northern California city is the latest stop for a group of paintings titled "Monet, the Early Years.'' The exhibit opened Feb. 25 and will close May 29. Fifty-three paintings have been gathered from leading museums and private collectors around the world, including the Larry Ellison Collection; the Union League Club of Chicago; the Musee d' Orsay in Paris; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The paintings included in the exhibit are of Claude Monet's works from the age of 17 in 1858 until 1872, when he was 31. While I have enjoyed viewing this famous French Impressionist's works in museums around the world for many years, this exciting exhibition contains several paintings that most museum-goers, including me, have never seen before, not even in reproductions. It was a wonderful, uplifting experience viewing them.
Paintings I especially enjoyed included depictions of Monet's wife, Camille Doncieux Monet, and their baby son, shown as "Jean Monet Sleeping," 1868, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Another was "The Cradle — Camille With the Artist's Son Jean," 1867, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The portrait of a woman wearing a red headscarf and standing outside a window with snow in the background was a portrait of Camille Monet, who reportedly posed for the artist for 15 years. It was titled, "The Red Kerchief," 1869, Cleveland Museum of Art.
Greeting visitors to the exhibition is the very large "Luncheon on the Grass," which Monet once left with his landlord in lieu of rent payments and came back to find the canvas had partially mildewed. He cut it up and saved most of it by mounting it into two panels, 1865-66, Musee d' Orsay, Paris. This painting was executed three years after Edouard Manet's famous work of the same title. It makes the viewer wonder if Monet was trying to compete with Manet or if perhaps he just wanted to illustrate his admiration.
Boats are in a bright painting titled "Regatta at Argenteuil," 1872, Musee d' Orsay, Paris. Bathers swim and parade around in "La Grenouillere," also on the Seine, 1869, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
A lovely beach scene is titled "Camille on the Beach at Trouville," on the Normandy Coast along the English Channel, 1870, Yale University of Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
In October 1870, to escape the Franco-Prussian war, Monet moved his family to London, where he met the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who sold his paintings throughout England's capital city, finally making the painter financially solvent. One of his pieces painted there — "Hyde Park," 1871, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence - is included in the exhibit..
In 1871, while the war in France raged on, the Monet family moved to Holland, settling in Zaandam. Two paintings from this period are "Houses by the Zaan at Zaandam," 1871, Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, and "A Windmill at Zaandam," 1871, Daniel Katz Gallery, London.
Monet eventually returned to France and continued to paint, his work becoming more sophisticated as both his fame and his finances grew. This show is said to represents a period of art before the Impressionists, but Monet said he always considered all of his art to be impressionistic.
Monet's later works are being put together in another exhibit that will be shown in 2019 titled "Monet: The Late Years."
WHEN YOU GO
The Legion of Honor (www.legionofhonor.famsf.org) is located in Lincoln Park, 100 34th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94121-1677. Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., closed most Mondays. Admission: adults, $35; seniors, 65 plus, $30; students, $26; youth 6 to17, $20; children under 5 free.
Patricia Arrigoni is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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