"Monet and Venice at the Brooklyn Museum is the kind of blockbuster exhibition that has everything going for it. Its focus on a brief, lesser-known period in Monet's career - a three-month stint in Venice in 1908 that produced 37 paintings - gives it a scholarly edge, while fan favorites by the OG Impressionist, including two towering water lily works, all but guarantee big crowds."
"Early paintings of seaside scenes show Monet rendering water as a mutable but viscerally material element. In "Rising Tide at Pourville" (1882), in which a brilliant green cliff with a small cottage overlooks a churning sea, waves appear as thick, vigorous brushstrokes. Rows of white froth are almost palpable as they collide with the land. Nearby, the tranquil "Sailboats on the Seine at Petit Gennevilliers" (1874) portrays boats floating on a slick surface that looks almost gelatinous."
The exhibition centers on Monet's three-month 1908 Venice visit, which produced 37 paintings and marked a transitional moment toward the water-lily series. Curators present 19 Venetian works alongside earlier and later paintings to trace evolving concerns with water and light. Venice's canals and luminous surfaces offered an ideal site to study reflections, translucency and atmospheric effects. Earlier seaside canvases render water as a viscous, tactile substance through thick, energetic brushwork, while the Venetian pieces intensify investigations of reflection and color. Select large-scale water-lily canvases connect these investigations to Monet's late, immersive exploration of water as subject.
Read at Hyperallergic
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