{"id":9000,"date":"2026-04-21T00:19:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/9000\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T00:19:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:19:27","slug":"claude-monet-exhibit-in-sf-captures-his-career-reviving-trip-to-venice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/9000\/","title":{"rendered":"Claude Monet exhibit in SF captures his career-reviving trip to Venice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMonet and Venice\u201d is the third San Francisco exhibit<\/a> of Claude Monet\u2019s paintings in less than 10 years, following \u201cMonet: the Early Years\u201d and \u201cMonet: the Late Years\u201d at the Legion of Honor and de Young museums.<\/p>\n

Granted, the enduring popularity of Impressionism stems from a single one of Monet\u2019s paintings displayed in Paris in 1872, but what more is there to say? What to see?<\/p>\n

Turns out there\u2019s plenty, beginning with more than 20 paintings of Venice that Monet produced in 1908 during his visit to the city he initially thought would be \u201ctoo beautiful to paint.\u201d But that\u2019s just a fraction of the trove on display in a new de Young exhibit, running through July 26.<\/p>\n

Monet\u2019s paintings of Venice fill only one of the exhibit\u2019s five galleries. There are another 100 items on the walls and in display cases.<\/p>\n

There are works by Monet painted before and after his two-month sojourn in Venice, including two versions of the iconic water lilies. There are paintings, watercolors and prints by Canaletto, Turner and Monet\u2019s American contemporaries John Singer Sargent and James McNeil Whistler. There are vintage postcards, photographs and a copy of John Ruskin\u2019s influential book from the 1850s, \u201cThe Stones of Venice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Monet'sMonet’s “Palazzo Contarini” (1908) is as much a painting of water as of architecture. The work is on display at the de Young. (Hasso Plattner Collection\/Sammlung Hasso Plattner)\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1908, at the age of 68, Monet was reluctant to travel to Venice. But the paintings he produced there (and completed at home in France) were stunning atmospheric studies that transcend the already-familiar settings. They\u2019re the core of the de Young show.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough Monet visited Venice only once, his paintings of the city are among his most dazzling,\u201d says Thomas Campbell, director of San Francisco\u2019s Fine Arts Museums, which include the de Young and the Legion. \u201cUnlike bustling scenes painted by other artists, Monet\u2019s Venice is hauntingly deserted, with its architecture, buildings and canals dissolving in an atmospheric light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course it was the atmospheric light that Monet wanted to convey, not just the details of architecture, canals and gondolas.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis Venetian paintings are among the most luminous and poetic of his career,\u201d says Melissa E. Buron, the exhibition co-curator.<\/p>\n

Multiple versions of \u201cThe Grand Canal, Venice\u201d (one from the Fine Arts Museums\u2019 own collection) offer a chance to study Monet\u2019s myriad colors and brushstrokes from one canvas to another. There\u2019s a bench handy in the gallery for a study session.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwilight, Venice\u201d and \u201cSan Giorgio Maggiore, Twilight,\u201d essentially the same vista, offer dazzling, almost-Technicolor drama, the water and sky enveloping the church structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palazzo Contarini\u201d seems to focus on moody architecture, but the real subject, filling more than half the canvas, is the reflection of the palace facade on the water. It\u2019s placid and blue, yet so much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palazzo Ducale, Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore,\u201d such a familiar Venetian Gothic landmark, is nearly swallowed by \u201catmosphere\u201d in several of its many depictions.<\/p>\n

\"XIR175169Claude Monet and his wife, Alice, make a few feathered friends during their trip to Venice in 1908. It was Alice who convinced her husband that he should travel to the city. French Photographer\/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course Monet wasn\u2019t the only artist setting up his easel in a gondola or a canal-side passageway early in the 20th century. Pierre-Auguste Renoir was depicting the Palazzo Ducale as well, and reported, \u201cThere were at least six of us queuing up to paint it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monet\u2019s wife Alice bemoaned the \u201cfrightening number of painters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibit\u2019s celebration of Venice continues beyond Monet\u2019s paintings. A good starting point, also from the Fine Arts Museums\u2019 collection, is Canaletto\u2019s 1749-50 depiction of \u201cVenice, the Grand Canal Looking East with Santa Maria della Salute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the artists of Monet\u2019s era represented, J.M.W. Turner\u2019s watercolors are also devoted to atmosphere, John Singer Sargent depicts the Venetian populace that Monet disregards, and Paul Signac stirs up a lively, colorful St. Mark\u2019s lagoon with sailboats.<\/p>\n

Monet\u2019s trip to Venice, which his wife Alice had encouraged, rejuvenated him at a time he was unsure of proceeding with an exhibit of his water lily paintings.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy trip to Venice has had the advantage of making me see my (water lily) canvases with a better eye,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Yes,Yes, Monet’s famed “Water Lilies” painting, from 1914-17, are part of the de Young exhibit. (Photograph by Randy Dodson\/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Venice canvases would go on exhibit in a Paris gallery in 1912. Meanwhile, in 1909, Monet exhibited 49 water lily paintings to critical acclaim. \u201cWithout Venice,\u201d noted de Young curator Buron, \u201cthe work for which Monet is best known might not have reached the height of its creative expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result was, she said, \u201can indisputably triumphant career comeback.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018MONET AND VENICE\u2019<\/p>\n

Through: July 26<\/p>\n

Where: de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Hours are 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday.<\/p>\n

Admission: $25-$40, famsf.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMonet and Venice\u201d is the third San Francisco exhibit of Claude Monet\u2019s paintings in less than 10 years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[53,3154,2966,2857,970,182,954,962,2853,1251,7710,7712,969,7713,7711],"class_list":{"0":"post-9000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anthropic","8":"tag-anthropic","9":"tag-anthropic-claude","10":"tag-art","11":"tag-bay-area","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-claude","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-features","16":"tag-latest-headlines","17":"tag-lifestyle","18":"tag-museums","19":"tag-peninsula","20":"tag-san-francisco","21":"tag-san-francisco-county","22":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}