In 2021, NGV opened an incredible exhibition centred around French Impressionism. However, it closed shortly after opening due to the pandemic. Next winter, in 2025, this exhibition is getting another chance. Find over 100 paintings, including works never-before-seen in Australia, by notable artists like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Marry Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and more. Presented in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), this will be one of the largest and most significant collections of French Impressionism to visit Australia. See the Winter Masterpieces exhibition from June 6 to October 5, 2025.
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French Impressionism at NGV
The French Impressionism exhibition at NGV will follow the trajectory of this experimental artistic movement in the late-nineteenth century across ten thematic sections. In an immersive exhibition design, you’ll see works on display amongst late-nineteenth century East Coast American and European interiors.
Admire the distinctive brushwork, unique points of view and dreamy applications of colour on the paintings, and see beautiful places depicted like Paris, Fontainebleau Forest, Pontoise, Giverny, the Normandy coast and the South of France.
The exhibition will also feature 16 canvases in one gallery by Claude Monet. The paintings cover a period of 30 years, and feature stunning depictions of Argenteuil, the Normandy coast, the Mediterranean coast and his famous garden in Giverny.
Another section will focus on early works by Monet and his forebears, Eugène Boudin and painters of the Barbizon School. These works highlight their influence on Monet’s method of painting outdoors.
You’ll also find an in-depth look at Renoir and his experimentation with pictorial effects in the 1880s, and Pissarro and his role as a mentor to other artists.
Alongside the paintings, the exhibition will also emphasise the thoughts of the artists that were captured through letters, journals and articles.
NGV partnered with MFA Boston to help make this exhibition possible. MFA has a vast collection of works, and some Bostonians even visited the artists in France during the height of the movement.