One of the most beloved pieces at Columbia Museum of Art is the Claude Monet painting The Seine at Giverny (L’Île aux Orties, Giverny). That misty oil on canvas, full of mystery and reflection, holds court over the new exhibit opening this June, which tells the story of Giverny’s magnetic pull over so many American artists at the turn of the century. Monet settled there, at the confluence of the Seine and Epte rivers, in 1883, and helped create the groundbreakingly radical Impressionist style. American artists visited and returned transformed.
The new exhibit features works by Willard Metcalf and Louis Ritter, who founded the Giverny Colony where many American artists settled while they practiced their technique. Among them was Blondelle Malone, a female artist raised in Columbia who met Monet and painted in his famed garden. Combining rarely seen pieces from private collections, selections from Columbia’s collection, and spotlight loans from other museums, the exhibit offers a closer look at how art movements are transmitted geographically.
In the Shadow of Monet: Giverny and American Impressionism, June 11–Sept 4. Columbia Museum of Art, 1515 Main St, Columbia. columbiamuseum.org
