Monet and the Modern City at CMOA Illustrates Iconic Impressionist Painter's Process

May 24, 2019

Monet and the Modern City
May 25–September 2
Gallery One

Carnegie Museum of Art (CMOA) presents a new exhibition that explores the enduring theme of industry in art through the lens of Claude Monet and his contemporaries.

Although the Impressionists are often remembered for their bright landscapes and scenes of everyday life, Monet and others were equally fascinated by the modern industrial landscapes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a focus on Paris and London. Artists such as Camille Pissarro and James Abbott McNeill Whistler frequently captured the atmosphere of the urban environment, turning the billowing smoke of industry into hazy, dreamlike clouds that evoke the power and promise of modernization.

Camille Pissarro, The Great Bridge, Rouen (Le Grand Pont, Rouen), 1896, Carnegie Museum of Art, 00.9.

This presentation features selections from Monet's Waterloo Bridge: Vision and Process, an exhibition organized by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. CMOA's own Monet painting, Waterloo Bridge, London (1903), will be presented alongside two others from the series ohn loan from the Memorial Art Gallery and Worcester Art Museum. Visitors are invited to examine recent scientific analysis of the canvases by art conservators through in-gallery digital interactives. Findings include the identification of which pigments Monet used and the process by which he rendered his compositions.

"This presentation contextualizes Monet with other artists who responded to the atmosphere and promise of industry," says May. "Monet and the Modern City offers many avenues for exploration, from the lively Impressionist cityscapes of Pissarro to the smoky, realistic depictions of Pittsburgh from Laboureur."

Johanna K. W. Hailman, Jones and Laughlin Mill, Pittsburgh, c. 1925–1930, Carnegie Museum of Art, 59.5.8. Bequest of Johanna K. W. Hailman.

A transition takes place as you move through the gallery, shifting the spotlight from Monet's serial paintings to related works by artists who rose to prominence before and after the famous French painter. Pittsburgh is represented in works by the Norwegian Impressionist Fritz Thaulow, French printmaker Jean-Emile Laboureur, who depicted the city's industrial aesthetic in his Ten Etchings of Pittsburgh, and Americans Aaron Gorson and Joseph Pennell, among others. These works place the city's landscape into conversation with depictions of Paris and London, and present other examples of artists working in a serial mode.

Monet and the Modern City is organized by Akemi May, assistant curator of fine arts at Carnegie Museum of Art.

Support

Major support for this exhibition is provided by Ritchie Battle and the Hurtt Foundation.

General operating support for Carnegie Museum of Art is provided by The Heinz Endowments and Allegheny Regional Asset District. Carnegie Museum of Art receives state arts funding through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Mission

Carnegie Museum of Art creates experiences that connect people to art, ideas, and one another. The museum is committed to global engagement and regional advancement. We champion creativity and its importance to society with experiences that welcome, inspire, challenge, and inform. Our core activities—collecting, conserving, presenting, and interpreting works of art—make those experiences possible. Our collection of over 30,000 works emphasizes art, architecture, photography, and design from the 19th century to the present. One of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art was founded by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1895. To learn more, please call 412.622.3131 or visit cmoa.org.

This article appears in the Web 2019 issue of Pittsburgh Parent.