5 Monets / 100 Days

This summer, experience Claude Monet’s fascination with his garden and the magic of light reflections on the river in a special dossier exhibition of five masterpieces by one of the 19th century’s most significant artists. Through August 5, two of the most popular Impressionist paintings in the Museum’s collection—Waterlilies and River at Lavacourt—are joined by three additional Monet landscapes from a private collection in the Museum’s Impressionist galleries on the first floor of the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art as a complement to California Impressionism.

The three oil canvases span some 25 years of Monet’s aesthetic development and illustrate how his brushwork was liberated to evoke physical experience and emotional perception. Regatta at Argenteuil and The Seine at Argenteuil serve to expand the visitor’s understanding of the Museum’s masterful River at Lavacourt through the comparison of the dazzling and varied skeins of paint with which Monet recorded the visual pleasures of a summer afternoon and invented the immediacy of light and wind upon the river across the seasons. Gladiolas in the Garden, like Waterlilies, celebrates the vivid floral colors and deep green shadows of the artist’s garden. The two paintings show his ability to give the viewer the specific moment of the day and celebrate the visual pleasures of the scenic beauty and tranquility of a sunlit garden.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see the world through Claude Monet’s eyes and discover the progression of his painting practice from vivid impression to abstraction in these five exquisite canvases.

Organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Bruce Guenther, chief curator and The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. This presentation is funded in part by The Laura and Roger S. Meier Endowment for European Art.