Works from Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and more are headed to Melbourne for the NGV’s international-exclusive presentation of the major Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition, French Impressionism, from 6 June 2025.
Presented by the NGV in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), an institution renowned world-wide for its rich holdings of Impressionist paintings, the exhibition features more than 100 iconic paintings, including additional works never-before-seen in Australia.
Originally presented at NGV in 2021, the exhibition closed just after it opened due to the global pandemic. The 2025 presentation of French Impressionism gives Australian audiences a rare, second chance to experience one of the largest and most significant collections of French Impressionism ever to visit Australia – all exclusively on loan to the NGV from the MFA’s renowned collection in Boston.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2022Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
French Impressionism charts the trajectory of the late-nineteenth century artistic movement, highlighting the key figures at the centre of this period of radical experimentation who boldly rejected the conventions of the state-sponsored Salon and exhibited their ‘impressionistic’ works independently.
The exhibition evokes the artistic energy and intellectual dynamism of the period by placing emphasis on the thoughts and observations of the artists themselves, as captured through letters, journals and articles. Their voices reveal the social connections, artistic influences and personal rivalries that united the group of rebellious practitioners at the centre of this new art movement.
Moving through a brand-new immersive exhibition design, audiences will experience the hallmarks of Impressionism, including distinctive brushwork, unique points of view, arresting use of colour, as well as places dear to the artists, such as Paris, Fontainebleau Forest, Pontoise, Giverny, the Normandy coast and the South of France. Many artists also recorded movement and change in urban and domestic realms; still life paintings, intimate interiors and modern urban subjects will also feature.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Fanny P. Mason Fund in memory of Alice Thevin Photography © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All Rights Reserved
An exhibition highlight will be a breathtaking display of 16 canvases in one gallery by Claude Monet. Painted over a thirty-year period, these paintings depict many of Monet’s most beloved scenes of nature in Argenteuil, the Normandy coast, the Mediterranean coast and his extraordinary garden in Giverny. Together, these paintings demonstrate the full scope of the artist’s immeasurable contribution to the Impressionist movement.
A unique section of the exhibition also examines early works by Monet and his forebears, Eugène Boudin and painters of the Barbizon School rarely exhibited in Australia. These works illustrate their profound influence on Monet’s use of the then radical method of painting outdoors en plein air (‘in the open air’) to capture changing conditions in nature.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Juliana Cheney Edwards Collection Photography © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All Rights Reserved
These masterworks will be displayed within a reimagined immersive exhibition design developed especially for this new presentation of French Impressionism. Referencing late nineteenth century East Coast American and European interiors, the exhibition’s design will bring forth the stories of the artists, exhibitions and collectors that shaped this renowned movement in art history.
French Impressionism, presented by the National Gallery of Victoria in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is on display 6 June to 5 October 2025 at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne. Further information is available via the NGV website.
