A Second Brush with Greatness: French Impressionism Exhibition Returns to the National Gallery of Victoria

This superb Impressionist painting by Claude Monet of the Grand Canal, Venice from 1908, a star at the NGV exhibition from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston collection. Cover picture: Eugene Louis Boudin's 'Fashionable Figures on the Beach', 1865. 

After a long, pandemic-imposed silence, the shimmering light and bold brushstrokes of French Impressionism are set to dazzle Melbourne once more. This week, the National Gallery of Victoria throws open its doors to French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a triumphant return of the blockbuster exhibition that was cut short in 2021. For art lovers who missed it the first time ~ and those eager to see it anew ~ this is no mere encore. With over 100 radiant works by Monet, Morisot, Renoir, Degas, and more, including newly added treasures never before seen in Australia, the show promises to be a luminous celebration of artistic resilience, rediscovery, and cultural revival, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento

One of the woman painters in the show:

Lousie Abbema's Renee Delmas de Pont-Jest, 

1875. National Gallery of Victoria

THE exhibition of French Impressionist paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is set to open at the National Gallery of Victoria on Friday June 6th, offering Melbourne audiences a second opportunity to view works that were largely kept behind closed doors during their original 2021 run, which was cut short by pandemic restrictions.

The NGV presentation is part of the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series, which brings major international exhibitions to the city each year. 

The 2021 version of the Impressionist show was installed but closed within days due to a state-wide COVID-19 lockdown. While some works were briefly on view, most of the public never saw them in person. This restaging is both a practical recovery and a gesture of cultural continuity.

More than one hundred works will be on display, including paintings by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. The collection spans the full arc of the Impressionist movement, from early experiments with light and colour to later, more structured compositions.

“French Impressionism is truly a revelation bringing together masterpieces of this transformational moment in the history of art and foregrounds the voices of the artists at the centre of it all.”

Victorine Meurent's Self-Portrat, 1876.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

This is not a simple remount. The exhibition, called French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, includes several works not previously shown in Australia. Among them is a self-portrait by Victorine Meurent (see at right) best known as Édouard Manet’s favored model in paintings such as Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe. Her inclusion reflects a growing interest in recovering the voices of women artists who were active in ~ but often excluded from ~ the movements they helped shape.

Another new addition is The Garlic Seller by Jean-François Raffaëlli, a painter associated with the realist end of the Impressionist spectrum. His work captures the street life and rural outskirts of Paris with the same spontaneity and looseness of brush as his better-known contemporaries. Also included is Edgar Degas’s Degas’s Father Listening to Lorenzo Pagans Playing the Guitar, a double portrait that explores themes of domestic intimacy and sound, recently conserved and shown for the first time post-restoration. 

The show is being billed as an opportunity to reintroduce the public to works that were, in many cases, hung but never seen. “We are delighted to have a second chance to share this meaningful exhibition with the people of Australia,” said Matthew Teitelbaum, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “French Impressionism is truly a revelation that brings together masterpieces of this transformational moment in the history of art and foregrounds the voices of the artists at the centre of it all.”

The exhibition also emphasizes the social and structural shifts that formed the backdrop to Impressionism’s rise: industrialization, urbanization, and the changing rhythms of daily life in modern France.

Berthe Morisot's daughter and step-niece

depicted in her work, Embroidery, 1889. 

National Gallery of Victoria

The paintings span from early plein air experiments of the 1860s through to the sun-drenched garden scenes of the 1890s and early 1900s.

A group of sixteen works by Claude Monet anchors the presentation, including several paintings from his Giverny period. 

But the exhibition also emphasizes the social and structural shifts that formed the backdrop to Impressionism’s rise ~ industrialization, urbanization, and the changing rhythms of daily life in modern France.

Tony Ellwood, director of the NGV, emphasized the depth of the Boston collection: “Their collection has the unique ability to narrate the entire trajectory of the Impressionist movement, from its precursors to its zenith, with rich detail and nuance." This exhibition is an opportunity to explore the full range of artists associated with it.

Many of the paintings were part of independent exhibitions organized by the artists themselves after being repeatedly rejected by the Salon, the official annual art show of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris

Claude Monet's delightful painting of Camille

 Monet and a child playing in the artist's 

garden at Argenteuil, was created in 1875.

Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston 

Alongside well-known names, it includes paintings by lesser-known figures such as Louise Abbéma and works on loan from the NGV’s own collection, including Berthe Morisot’s Embroidery (1889) and Paul Signac’s Gasometers at Clichy (1886), which hint at the evolution toward Post-Impressionism and Divisionism.

While the show features paintings, it also incorporates archival material and contextual design to evoke the cultural atmosphere of 19th-century Paris and Boston. Letters, early reviews, and period decor are included to give audiences a sense of how these works were seen ~ and often criticized ~ in their own time. The design is intended not only to complement the art but to foreground the artists’ own words and intentions.

Many of the paintings were part of independent exhibitions organized by the artists themselves after being repeatedly rejected by the Salon, the official annual art show of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Works like Degas’s At the Races in the Countryside and Renoir’s Mixed Flowers in an Earthenware Pot were once considered radical for their loose handling and informal subjects.

The show incorporates archival material and contextual design to evoke the cultural atmosphere of 19th-century Paris and Boston

Paul Cezanne's Fruit and a Jug on a Table, 1890-94.

Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston 

The Boston MFA has one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of French Impressionist art outside France, a result of 19th-century American collectors’ appetite for modern European painting. 

The relationship between the NGV and the MFA dates back more than a decade and has included loans, exchanges, and research partnerships.

From a civic standpoint, the exhibition is expected to draw substantial attendance. "It brings the world of art to Victoria, giving local audiences the opportunity to see and experience masterpieces that rarely travel,” said Colin Brooks, Victoria’s Minister for Creative Industries. “At the same time, exhibitions of this quality draw visitors from far and wide, injecting millions into our economy. French Impressionism is no exception, and we’re pleased to give this extraordinary exhibition the run it deserves.”

The exhibition opens at the National Gallery of Victoria on June 6th, 2025, and will run through October 5th. It is exclusive to Melbourne.