Claude Monet was a great painter obviously, but you might not know that he was also a big art collector, with some pieces donated by friends and many other bought full price.

This incredible collection was sold off and the list of its contents lost, but thanks to the tireless research of the exhibition’s two curators, many of the pieces have been brought back together for four months, including works by Cézanne, Renoir, Manet, Delacroix, Pissarro, Rodin, Toulouse-Lautrec…

Here’s all the info.

The story behind this exhibition is quite incredible. Monet’s private collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures was built up during his life and left to his son upon his death. However, Monet junior had a rather expensive love of African safaris, and sold of many of the pieces before the Second World War.

The only remaining list of the works in the collection was stored with Monet’s notary, and was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940.

Writings from the era (interviews with Monet, memoirs published by his acquaintances) and archive documents have been collected and cross-referenced in order to draw up the most precise list possible of the works. Some surprising discoveries were made along way, and some pieces thought to have belonged to him were proved not to have been.
Early in his career, Monet didn’t have enough money to buy paintings. Instead, he sometimes received them as gifts (often portraits of him and/or his wife) from friends. Later, he was able to exchange works with artist friends – for example, a painting by Monet was swapped for a bronze by Rodin – until he finally earned enough to be able to buy freely any painting he pleased. Renoir and Cézanne were particular favourites of his.

In total, the exhibition shows nearly a hundred pieces lent by private collections as well as prestigious museums in New York, Washington, Houston, San Francisco, São Paulo, Tokyo and Stuttgart, as well as the Musée d’Orsay and the Rodin Museum in Paris (with other works taken from the collection at Marmottan).

To explore the subject further, a catalogue of the exhibition is available (312 pages, 39€ here at amazon.fr) and there are workshops for kids available in English!

The exhibition Monet collectionneur is at the Musée Marmottan (here) 14th September 2017 – 14th January 2018

Open Tuesday-Sunday from 10am-6pm (9pm Thursdays)

Admission: 11€ / 7.5€ / free for under 7s

Website: www.marmottan.fr