Steven Rowe, Newton, N.H.

International Exhibition Goes on View in Richmond September 19

RICHMOND, VA. – The international touring exhibition “” will be on view in Richmond at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from September 19 through December 10. The exhibition will be shown exclusively on the US East Coast at the museum and will then be exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The exhibition presents an array of landscapes that reveal the origins and full development of Impressionism, as well as the new and experimental styles that it later stimulated. The paintings capture widely varying effects of light and color in the landscape in all conditions of weather and times of the year.

“This exhibition presents the freshest, brightest and best works from Boston’s collection by Monet, Renoir and others,” says Malcolm Cormack, Paul Mellon Curator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

More than 65 paintings are shown in the exhibition, ranging in date from the 1830s to about 1905. The exhibition illuminates the development of landscape painting in France during the Nineteenth Century. It makes the point that there was a division between the Salon (France’s official art exhibition) and the new, independent artists who became known as the Impressionists. Approximately 40 Impressionist paintings form the core of the exhibition. Thirteen are by Claude Monet (1840-1926), who is regarded as one of the great geniuses of the movement.

The innovations of the Impressionists paved the way for later artists to experiment even more boldly with color and technique. In the exhibition’s concluding section, landscapes by Post-Impressionist painters “poignantly demonstrate the lasting impact of the Impressionists’ new vision,” Cormack says.

“” is drawn from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The exhibition debuted at the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Nagoya, Japan (April 17 to September 26, 1999), and then traveled to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa (June 1 to August 27).

“” is accompanied by a 212-page softcover catalog written by George Shackelford, chair of the department of the art of Europe, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Tickets for the exhibition may be ordered via telephone at 888/446-6638 and online at www.vmfa.state.va.us. The museum is on the Boulevard at Grove Avenue. Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm, (Thursday nights until 8 pm). For information, 804/340-1400.