Monet-Mitchell

Monet-Mitchell will create, for the first time, an artistic, sensorial, and poetic “dialogue” between the works of two exceptional artists: Claude Monet (1840-1926), with his Water Lilies, and Joan Mitchell (1925-1992). Both artists left their mark not only on their own eras, but also on subsequent generations of painters.

This dialogue will be complemented by a retrospective of Joan Mitchell’s works, allowing the public in Europe to discover her paintings.

These exhibitions will present each artist’s unique response to a shared landscape, which they illustrate in a particularly immersive and sensual manner. 

In his last paintings, the Water Lilies, Monet aimed to recreate in his studio the motifs he observed on the surface of his water lily pond in Giverny. Joan Mitchell, on the other hand, explored a memory or a sense of the emotions she felt whilst in a particular place that was dear to her. She moved permanently in 1968 to Vétheuil, a small French village where Claude Monet had lived between 1878 and 1881.

Monet-Mitchell Dialogue
Gallery 4 to 11

This exhibition will be presented in collaboration with the Musée Marmottan Monet, which boasts the world’s largest collection of works by Claude Monet.

In the 1950s, Monet’s Water Lilies found recognition in the United States, with Abstract Expressionist painters viewing them as precursors of abstraction. In the context of this “Monet Revival,” Mitchell took part in exhibitions that were devoted to the notion of “abstract impressionism,” a term coined by her friend Elaine de Kooning.

Bringing together some 60 emblematic works by the two artists, the exhibition will offer the public an enchanting journey, emphasised by striking visual and thematic parallels. The show will display 36 works by Claude Monet, including 25 major canvases from the Musée Marmottan Monet. It will offer an overview of Monet’s large-scale Water Lilies, which are rarely presented without a frame. These works will dialogue with 24 of Mitchell’s imposing abstract paintings.

Highlights of the exhibition include two exceptional bodies of work:

Claude Monet’s Agapanthus Triptych. This triptych, which is nearly 13-metres-long, will be exhibited in its entirety for the first time in Paris. Monet worked on these monumental canvases for nearly 10 years, and considered them to be “one of his four best series”. This triptych played a decisive role in his subsequent recognition in the United States.

Joan Mitchell’s La Grande Vallée series. 10 large-scale paintings are exceptionally brought together almost four decades after its fragmentary exhibition at the Galerie Jean Fournier (1984). A powerful body of work, it is regarded as one of her most important series. The paintings are characterised by an abundance of colour that spreads across the canvas, creating a sense of vibrancy and elation. 

Joan Mitchell Retrospective
Gallery 1 to 2

This will be the most significant Joan Mitchell retrospective to be shown in Europe in over 30 years.

This retrospective, which is co-organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) together with the Fondation Louis Vuitton, will bring together some 50 works.

The exhibition will examine the life and work of an artist who is today regarded as one of the most influential artistic figures of the second half of the twentieth century. 

Joan Mitchell was a prominent figure in the New York art scene and regularly interacted with artists such as Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and Philip Guston. Her affinity with European artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Cézanne, Matisse, and Monet, as well as her interest in poetry and music, influenced her lively and gestural works.

The retrospective will explore the major series she created in the United States and France. Initially seen as a source of inspiration for her solar, incandescent paintings, Vétheuil soon became synonymous with her polyptychs of the 1970s, such as Chasse Interdite. The artist continued creating exuberant paintings in the 1980s, with works such as No Birds, a tribute to Van Gogh, or South, her iconic version of Cézanne’s Sainte-Victoire, one of the masterpieces of the Collection of the Fondation.