SOUTH AUSTRALIA is set to make an impression next year when art lovers will be given the rare opportunity to see more than 65 French masterpieces in an exclusive exhibition.
Impressionist paintings by some of the nineteenth century's most prominent artists including Monet, Renoir, Cezanne and Manet will be on show at the Australia Art Gallery of South Australia when the Colours of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay exhibition opens in March.
The iconic works are from the renowned collection of the Musée d'Orsay art gallery in Paris and one of the highlights of the exhibition will be Monet's celebrated work La Pie (The Magpie).
Painted by Monet in the open air, the snowscape features a novel palette of pale, lustrous colours, which caused the painting to be rejected by the Salon, the annual official art exhibition, in 1869.
From the dark tones of Manet's Spanish-influenced paintings, to the rich green and blue hues of the French countryside as painted by Cézanne, Monet and Pissarro and rosy pigments of Renoir's and Morisot's female figures, the exhibition traces the development of colour in the Impressionist art movement.
Art gallery director Nick Mitzevich said the exhibition was the "'the most important exhibition ever to be shown" at the South Australian gallery.
"With so few Impressionist works held in Australian collections, the exhibition presents a rare opportunity for Australians to see the movement's radical evolution of colour," he said.
South Australia Premier and Arts Minister Jay Weatherill described the exhibition as a "real coup".
"The Musée d'Orsay have been extremely generous in the selection of works of art they are sending to the southern hemisphere, with a number of them coming here for the very first time," he said.
- Colours of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay will run from 29 March to 29 July 2018. For further information or to book tickets visit artgallery.sa.gov.au
