Editor’s note: The Museum of Fine Arts has reopened and extended this exhibition until March 28, 2021.

BOSTON – In this grayest period, Claude Monet’s luminous paintings seem to sparkle with the incandescent colors of the northern lights in a revealing exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts.

The MFA is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year but is temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Once the museum reopens (hopefully later this month), all 35 oil paintings by Monet from the MFA are on display – stunning landscapes, iridescent water lilies and light-saturated cathedrals as well as on loan from collections. local – in “Monet and Boston: Lasting Impression.” This is a must-see show that chronicles the evolution and revolutionary techniques of one of the most influential artists of modern times, so let’s hope health conditions improve and the museum can reopen soon.

The works on display range from the first paintings including “Rue de la Bavole, Honfleur”, circa 1864, “Antibes”, an 1888 work experimenting with Mediterranean light, to his famous “Grainstacks”, “Rouen Cathedral” and “Water lilies” series .

Reunited for the first time in a generation, the exhibition also features works that complement the Monets, including 19th-century Japanese woodcuts and paintings by influential European artists, such as Jean-François Millet and Théodore Rousseau.

Watching the alluring shades of deep blue water in “Matin sur la Seine, near Giverny” or a sunny country lane and puffy clouds in “Prairie aux Peupliers”, visitors will have traveled as far as possible from the pandemic, politics and suffocating boredom of the past year.

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Monet (1840-1926) shaped the course of modern painting by using vivid colors in swift brushstrokes that captured changing light and imbued his subjects with an unprecedented immediacy that affected the way artists saw and depicted the natural world.

This exhibition triumphs by presenting a magnificent selection of representative works and masterpieces by Monet in a way that encourages visitors “to look at them with new eyes,” said Katie Hanson, associate curator of European paintings which organized the exhibition.

“I wanted to keep bringing him back to Monet’s life – what people saw and said back then and how that informs how we understand his work now,” she said. “One of the great pleasures of organizing an exhibition is seeing familiar works in a different context that allows them to be seen again. “

Hanson has organized the exhibition chronologically into four sections – “Becoming Monet”, “Monet and Japonism”, “Monet’s Normandy” and “Monet’s Magic” – which guide visitors throughout his career to show the development of its revolutionary techniques and the extent of its success.

MFA Director Matthew Teitelbaum observed that Monet lived through a period of profound industrial and scientific change in France and around the world, but his visionary paintings “connect us to the natural world and the challenges of its presentation”.

“Monet used new scientific theories to highlight a new understanding of how we see color and light. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the MFA, we are very proud to underline the commitment of our city and our museum to this incomparable artist, ”he said.

Fueled by the residents’ cultural and corporate ties to France, many Bostonians admired Monet’s work during his lifetime, and the MFA held a commemorative exhibition – the artist’s second only in the United States – two months after his died in 1926.

Teitelbaum said: “We started collecting Monet’s work during his lifetime and this commitment continues to this day. The MFA is a living museum, constantly connecting the past to the present.

To help visitors understand how different artists and traditions influenced Monet’s development, several of his early paintings are displayed side by side with works by other painters he admired.

For example, to reveal the significant influence of the Barbizon school, which emphasized direct observation and the search for beauty in the mundane, works by Jean-François Millet and Théodore Rousseau appear alongside several of the first Monet’s works such as “The pickers at the edge of the Forest”, around 1863, “Rue de la Bavole, Honfleur”, around 1864, and “Ships in a port”, around 1873.

Other informative couples include marine painters Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind whose advice was sought by Monet for his paintings of Normandy.

As he approached middle age in the 1880s, Monet began to return to paint in certain places, such as the poppy fields and meadows of Giverny or the cliffs and coastal waters of Le Havre, which had powerful emotional connections. and light conditions suited to his developing vision.

Culminating in the aptly named ‘The Magic of Monet’, the final section of the exhibition features works inspired by the artist’s travels along the Mediterranean coast where he was dazzled by what he called ‘the magical air ”. Visitors will see many of his most memorable series of paintings from the 1890s and later, including “Grainstacks”, “Rouen Cathedral” and “Water Lilies”.

In 1888, art dealer Theo van Gogh observed the impact of Monet’s light paintings on viewers: “He has… the gift of being able to project a ray of light in these pessimistic times, which will bring clarity and encouragement to many.

Seeing these unique works in a single gallery brings back Monet’s mastery of his craft and his genius with powerful immediacy.

The wall text notes that when Swiss artist Georges Jeanniot visited Monet after buying his house in Giverny, he drove him through the fields and “stopped in front of the most dissimilar scenes, admiring them and me. raising awareness of the beauty and the unexpected in nature. . “

The text on the wall continued: “With endless inspiration right before his eyes, Monet found splendor in the mundane, in poppies, poplars and heaps of grain – making everyday scenes dazzling, learning. to the modern eye to see the world again. “

Not only has he recreated the beauty of an ordinary haystack and a majestic cathedral, Monet has captured the ephemeral play of light, mixing his pigments with brushstrokes like a conjurer freezes a moment that becomes timeless for the spectator.

When the MFA organized its first Monet Exhibition in 1911, a Boston Traveler writer was struck by paintings that captured the beauty of nature while expressing the artist’s emotion in a new visual language: gallery of all of Monet’s paintings, it’s like seeing and feeling all the colors of nature for the magical moment all gathered in a rainbow of dreams.

“Monet and Boston: a lasting impression”

Note: The Museum of Fine Arts has reopened and extended this exhibition until March 28.

O: Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston

HOW MUCH: General admission: $ 25; “Monet” and general admission, $ 30; Youth 17 and under, Free

NOTE: All visitors and members must reserve their tickets in advance online for General Admission and Special Admission. All visitors must wear masks and maintain a social distance of six feet.

CONTACT: 617-267-9300; www.mfa.org