CLEVELAND, OH.- The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is thrilled to announce the opening of Monet in Normandy, a groundbreaking exhibition celebrating the intimate relationship between Claude Monet and the stunning landscape of Normandy, on view February 18 through May 20, 2007, at CMA. Organized by The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Monet in Normandy is the first scholarly exhibition to examine Monet’s lifelong attachment to this unique region of France. The rugged shoreline and imposing cliffs of Normandy’s coast, the countryside of shimmering wheat and poppy fields, the picturesque villages of the region’s interior and the artist’s garden at Giverny were mainstays in Monet’s life. His evolving depictions of this quintessentially French landscape over more than 60 years trace the development of a long and remarkable artistic career. Monet in Normandy features works on loan from American and European museums and private collections.

“Monet returned to many of these locations at various times throughout his career. The exhibition, Monet in Normandy, will give visitors the opportunity to experience the evolution of his style from that of a young artist brought up in the Realist tradition, to that of a mature painter whose daring landscapes defined Impressionism. Monet’s extraordinary way of using paint to evoke atmosphere and terrains was unique and thoroughly modern,” said CMA Associate Curator of Drawings Heather Lemonedes. “The exhibition will also feature works from the same place, but of different vantage points, angles and atmospheric conditions, allowing for fascinating comparative study.”

With only three venues, this rare opportunity debuted at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA) from June 17 to Sept. 17, 2006, where more than 330,000 visitors lined up to see the exhibition. Monet in Normandy then opened at the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC) from October 15, 2006, to January 14, 2007 — where the exhibition drew 215,000 visitors — before coming to The Cleveland Museum of Art where it will complete the exhibition tour. Exhibition Provides Intimate Glimpse of Monet’s Relationship with Normandy Although born in Paris, Claude Monet (1840–1926) moved with his family to Le Havre, a charming town on the coast of Normandy, when he was a small child, thus beginning the artist’s enduring relationship with the region. The drama and beauty of the coast as enjoyed by vacationers from Paris provided the subject matter for several of Monet’s most significant works of the 1860s. In several deeply personal canvases of 1870, Monet recorded his honeymoon in the Norman seaside resort town Trouville, with his new wife, Camille Doncieux. Throughout the 1880s, while living in Poissy, a suburb outside of Paris, Monet made numerous painting campaigns to the Normandy coast where he painted the soaring cliffs and pebbly beaches from every conceivable angle. The spectacle of the cliffs and sea exposed to the elements became the subject that the artist returned to most frequently throughout this decade. Monet spent the last 30 years of his life in Giverny, a picturesque village on the eastern border of Normandy. The misty Seine, lush wheat and poppy fields and the artist’s abundant gardens and water lily pond comprised the subject matter of his late paintings. Monet in Normandy presents works from the beginning of Monet’s career, through the end, allowing the viewer the opportunity to compare works and experience his transition from a young artist trained in the Realist tradition into the well-known, mature Impressionist.