‘The Unknown Monet’ Opens

At Clark Art Institute June 24

Photo e-m 6-7, typesetting copy

 

1½  col

Claude Monet, “Water Lilies,” 1916–19, oil on canvas, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel.

1½  col

Claude Monet, “Portrait of a Woman,” circa 1890–95, red chalks with stumping, private collection.

2c

Claude Monet, “Study of Water Lilies,” circa 1914–1919, crayon drawing in sketchbook 6, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.

FOR 6-22

‘THE UNKNOWN MONET’ OPENS AT CLARK ART INSTITUTE JUNE 24 w/3 cuts

avv/gs set 6-8 #702662

WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. — Claude Monet, one of the world’s most well-known artists, is the subject of a major exhibition this summer at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. “The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings,” on view June 24–September 16, however, is not your typical Monet exhibition.

Utilizing largely unknown and rarely exhibited works, the exhibition exposes Monet’s hidden life as a youthful caricaturist, masterful draftsman and skilled pastel artist. This is the first exhibition to focus on Monet’s works on paper and the role of drawing in his paintings.

Comprising nearly 100 works, including more than 20 pastels, three dozen drawings and 14 paintings, “The Unknown Monet” provides a revolutionary new interpretation of the artist’s life and work.

Monet’s reputation, that of Impressionist painter par excellence, was one that he cultivated by talking at length to journalists about his original working practices. These descriptions do not include references to drawing or the use of sketchbooks, yet it is now known that Monet relied on these methods for independent works as well as part of his painting process.

“The Unknown Monet” gives voice to his hidden talents by presenting a significant body of pastels, finished drawings, and studies in relation to his more familiar paintings.

“The Unknown Monet” surveys the artist’s entire career, beginning with young Oscar’s (as Claude was then known) first commissions — caricatures of local residents from his home of Le Havre — to his mastery of pastel as shown in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874, through his use of sketch books in the creation of the Nympheas, or waterlily, paintings that absorbed the artist’s attention at the end of his life.

The exhibition is organized by the Clark in association with the Royal Academy of Arts, London. It is curated by James A. Ganz, curator of prints, drawings and photographs, and Richard Kendall, curator at large, both at the Clark.

The Clark is on South Street. For information, 413-458-2303 or www.clarkart.edu.