Monet (Claude)

Painter / Visit of the exhibition at the Grand Palais with the French President and French Culture Minister, Frédéric Mitterrand (January 4, 2010)

Two years ago, the Picasso and his masters exhibition at the Grand Palais was already considered an overwhelming success with over 6,000 visitors a day.  However, very soon after it opened on September 22, 2010, the Monet retrospective was breaking records, notching up as many as 8,800 visitors on late-night opening days.  Why has the exhibition attracted such large crowds?  Some mention the sumptuous exhibition catalogue which delights specialists and the general public alike and allows one to admire both the Water Lilies and the other more targeted works.  Others mention the exhibition’s intelligent scenography which establishes links between the periods with didactic respect for chronology. Others put it down to the fact that it is a fixed exhibition and will not travel.  However, perhaps it is simply the worldwide uniqueness of Monet’s art.  Could Monet be an ambassador of the French touch?  Most definitely; the numbers confirm it.  At the Grand Palais, more than one-third of the visitors are tourists and many are English speakers.  In the post-war years, the English were fascinated by existentialism, a trend of thought that really injected a breath of fresh air into a country that was too busy rebuilding and laying the foundations of Swingin’ London.  In the very same way, impressionism is a style that is always popular in London’s museums.  In 2007, a sale at Sotheby’s proved that impressionist art and Monet in particular were back with a vengeance on the art market.  The craze was starting to touch New York, which was hitherto more partial to contemporary art.  On that day, at Sotheby’s London, the oil on canvass painting Waterloo Bridge, Overcast Weather (1899-1901) sold for 31.6 million dollars to a private American collector. In 1990, the painting had been acquired for 3.1 million dollars. « Do you blame Monet / His garden in Giverny / He captured » : in 2004, American singer Laura Veirs wrote a song inspired by Monet for indie folk circles … Monet is not just about money.