French Impressionists Exhibit Comes to Houston

Jan 04, 2011

While the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., renovates, it will ship 50 paintings by French artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The exhibit, “Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art,” will be on view from Feb. 20 through May 23, 2011.

The National Gallery’s Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection ranks among the finest of any museum in the world. Houston is the only city in the U.S. to house these paintings during the renovation, which have never before been loaned by the National Gallery of Art.

Paintings by 17 artists will be presented in Houston, with many represented by multiple works. Among the highlights is one of Paul Cézanne’s earliest paintings “The Artist’s Father, Reading L’Evenement,” which he completed at the age of 27 in 1866. Edgar Degas, one of the founders of impressionism, will have three pieces in the exhibition, including “Dancers Backstage,” part of his recurrent theme of the life of ballerinas, both onstage and off.

The ever popular Vincent van Gogh will have three works from his late period in the exhibition including “Farmhouse in Provence,” which was completed during a productive 15-month period in Arles, France; during this period van Gogh created more than 200 paintings and 100 drawings, and wrote 200 letters. The two other paintings, his late “Self-Portrait (1889)” and still life “Roses (1890),” were painted after he committed himself to an asylum for a year-long stay.

The work of several other renowned French impressionists (Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec) will be featured in the upcoming exhibition.

Select Houston hotels have partnered with the museum to package special hotel rates with VIP and discounted tickets to the impressionist exhibition. Visitors who purchase these packages will receive a 20 percent discount per ticket. Hotel/ticket packages can only be purchased at VisitHoustonTexas.com/Impressionists through Travelocity.