MONET HIGHLIGHTED AT THE GRIMALDI FORUM: TRULY DAZZLING!

Until 3 September

This summer’s exhibition at the Grimaldi Forum will go down in history. About a hundred paintings, including some rarely exhibited jewels, are taking us on an exceptional journey into the Master’s of Impressionism universe. He is upsetting all the conventions to reveal not a reality as such, but rather the atmosphere it is bathing in.

“I want to paint the air in which the bridge, the house, the boat are dwelling. The beauty of the air that surrounds them... The motif is something secondary. What I want to reproduce is something in between this motif and myself”, — the lover of the water lilies was famously saying.

140 years ago Claude Monet was stopping over on the French and Italian Riviera, passing by Monte-Carlo. Among other things, the painter immortalized the small bridge of Dolceaqua, a charming village in the Ligurian hinterland. In Bordighera, he was inspired by the majestic trees of the Mariani estate. In Antibes, in 1888, Monet set up his easel on the Salis beach, capturing the vibrations of light, the ethereal variations changing shape by the second. In Monaco, the Princely Palace is also preciously keeping two paintings to be exhibited at the Grimaldi Forum....

Thanks to the expertise of a great Monet connoisseur and exhibition curator, Marianne Mathieu, the original scenography is truly fascinating. It is inviting us to take a look at these masterpieces without any attempt at description, realism or rationality. “Let us not question ourselves what Monet painted but rather when he did. Let us not look for a motif but for a moment of time...”

Claude Monet made his first visit to the south of France in 1883. He was then exploring Monte-Carlo, the Italian Riviera and the neighbouring villages in the company of his friend, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. These were new colours, new elements, new reliefs and unsuspected lines for this man born in Paris. With his palette thus expanded, his mind started wandering into new shades. Under the sun of the French Riviera, Monet’s brush truly took on a new leap. This audacious monograph is featuring the most pivotal paintings of the master of Impressionism, slowly revealing to us his intimate light.

Monet en plein lumière

Grimaldi Forum

10, Avenue Princesse Grace, Monaco