✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Visual Arts

Review: Monet & Architecture, National Gallery, London ★★★★★

09 Apr 18 – 29 Jul 18, Saturday - Thursday 10:00 - 18:00, Friday 10:00 - 21:00

The National Gallery's new exhibition of Claude Monet paintings majestically illuminates a much neglected facet of the painter's work

By Lucy Scovell on 9/4/2018

44 CW readers are interested
Detail from Claude Monet, 'The Grand Canal (Le Grand Canal)', 1908 © Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Gift of Osgood Hooker 1960.29​
Detail from Claude Monet, 'The Grand Canal (Le Grand Canal)', 1908 © Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Gift of Osgood Hooker 1960.29​
Review: Monet & Architecture, National Gallery, London 5 Review: Monet & Architecture, National Gallery, London Emma Christie
A brilliant colourist, a master of light, the joyous painter of water lilies; we are all familiar with the painterly style of Claude Monet. But the National Gallery’s latest exhibition introduces us to a different, but equally innovative side of this modern master. The result is simply mesmerising.


Dedicated to a select number of Claude Monet paintings of architecture, the exhibition explores the father of Impressionism's lifelong but previously unexplored preoccupation with structure. From the early Normandy paintings of the 1860s to his evocative depictions of Venice painted in 1912, Monet’s self-proclaimed ‘obsession’ with architecture is revealed in all its pictorial glory.


TRY CULTURE WHISPER
Receive free tickets & insider tips to unlock the best of London — direct to your inbox
Dreamlike renderings of historic French villages, idyllic seascapes and boating scenes populate the first three rooms of the exhibition. With ubiquitous lashings of jubilant light, pastel palettes and majestic subject matter, Monet, as always, seduces the eye. Depictions of historic churches, rustic cottages, and windmills abound: the artist's early preoccupation with the 18th-century English aesthetic resonates loud and clear. Providing balance, chromatic contrasts and a sense of scale essential to the drama of his landscapes, these picturesque motifs are a pure delight to behold.



Claude Monet, The Church at Varengeville and the Gorge of Moutiers, 1882. Photograph: Columbus Museum of Art


But architecture mattered more to Monet than pure compositional aesthetic would suggest. An 1879 painting of the church at Vétheuil sees Monet play with architecture to reflect on both human nature and human fate. Dominating the dappled blue skyline, the medieval church rises magnanimously from the village below. Reflected in the expanse of glittering water, the structure adopts an otherworldly presence. As the resting place of Monet’s first wife, Camille, the church prompts nostalgic recollection. Here, architecture provides a psychological dimension to Monet’s art. The church evokes memory: it stands in for human presence, it honors change, evolution and development.


Although known for his en-plein air paintings of water lilies, gardens and the coasts of his native France, Monet, like his fellow Impressionists, chronicled the passage of time. Tracing an extraordinary arc through the art of one man, the exhibition unexpectedly explores architecture as both a marker of composition and of modernity. Following the 1867 Exposition Universelle, Monet sought inspiration from the evolving urban metropolis: iron bridges, billowing chimneys, locomotives, bustling boulevards and the chaotic ports of Rouen and Le Havre entirely absorbed him.


The Boulevard des Capucines, a rare loan from the State Pushkin Museum, is one of the most emblematic and brilliant measures of modernity in the exhibition. Monet’s broad, sweeping brush strokes evoke a flurry of movement, hasty exchanges – the hustle and bustle on the streets of Paris. Yet, the Haussmannian buildings looming large in the background provide a pleasing regularity that balances an otherwise frantic composition. Painted from a high vantage point, we look down from above at the boulevard below. Bathed half in light, half in shadow, the fleeting is captured for eternity.


While Monet's gritty, fragmented cityscapes depicting industrial urban development seem quite at odds with the genteel landscapes of the preceding galleries, they are emphatically modern pictures that position Monet as an obedient observer of his time.



Claude Monet, The Saint-Lazare Railway Station, 1877. Photograph: National Gallery, London


But Monet's interest in urban motifs waned as he left Paris for the rural village of Giverny. When he revisited the urban landscape in the latter stages of his career, his focus was different. As an old man, Monet explored the complex dialogue between architectural structure, atmosphere and light. The result – arguably the best paintings of his career.


During stints in Rouen, London and Venice in the late 1880s and 1890s, Monet painted his now famous paintings of Rouen Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and Venetian Palazzi. In these formidable works, Monet used architecture to subtly different ends: in Rouen the cathedral facade served as a screen to record shifting light; in London, Monet was fixated by the effects of light and fog on the Parliament buildings; and in Venice it was the relationship of light with water that preoccupied him the most.


We see Rouen Cathedral painted four times, all from the West façade, but at different times of the day. Glowing blue, orange, dusky pink in the fragmented light, the Cathedral’s outlines – almost impossible to decipher – throb with emotion. For Monet, architecture is just nature in other media.



What Review: Monet & Architecture, National Gallery, London
Where National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN | MAP
Nearest tube Charing Cross (underground)
When 09 Apr 18 – 29 Jul 18, Saturday - Thursday 10:00 - 18:00, Friday 10:00 - 21:00
Price £17 (earlybird)
Website Click here for more details



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 24th - 26th June
Things to do in London this weekend: 24th - 26th June
Jacquemus X Nike Collaboration
Beige, sexy and sporty: Jacquemus X Nike collaboration drops
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022

Editor's Picks

Andy Warhol, Tate Modern, Aubrey Beardsley, Tate Britain, Gauguin, National Portrait Gallery
The best art exhibitions in London this March
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), The Kiss,large version, after 1898, Plaster, cast from first marble version, of 1888–98© Musée Rodin
Review: Rodin exhibition, the British Museum
Best art exhibitions, London, 2018
Best art exhibitions, London, 2018
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • The Alchemist, Covent Garden

    Renowned for its molecular mixology, placing theatre and immersive experiences at its core, The Alchemist opens its second London branch in Covent Garden

    Read more...
    Map
  • Rose Bakery

    Another nice secret spot is Rose Bakery, at the top floor of Dover Street Market, for delicious quiche and desert. Tables are tiny and you'll have to fight your corner to get seats, between fashion people and wannabe curators.

    Book Map
  • Japan Centre

    Once upon a time, the Japan Centre was just a small bookshop and café in Piccadilly Circus. However, recently it has seen some major expansions, and now has a number of different sites throughout London. Visit Japan Centre Panton Street just around the corner from Leicester Square to eat at its fantastic food court where you can sample a variety of Japanese delicacies. Then have a look around the shop to purchase some tasty snacks or ingredients to make your own dishes at home.

    Read more...

    Get the latest updates on Japan Centre and all the best places to eat and drink in London with our city guide

    Book Map
44

Art

National Gallery

Monet

Impressionism

Exhibition

You might like

  • Lucian Freud, Girl With Dog (1950-1). Tate. © Tate

    Review: All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life, Tate Britain, ★★★★★

  • Review: Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up, V&A

    Review: Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up, V&A ★★★★★

  • Mary and Margaret, the Artist’s Daughters by Thomas Gainsborough, c.1760-1. Victoria and Albert Msueum, London. Bequeathed by John Foster © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

    Review: Gainsborough's Family Album, National Portrait Gallery ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×