150 years of Impressionism! Join us to celebrate with an exhibition brimming with French masterpieces from Dutch collections. Discover the work of famous Impressionists including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin and Camille Pissarro.
In 2024, it is 150 years since Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris) stirred a critic to condescendingly write about ‘The Exhibition of the Impressionists’. This represented a major art-historical milestone: the ‘birth’ of Impressionism.
To celebrate this anniversary, the exhibition Vive l’impressionnisme! Masterpieces from Dutch Collections will be on display at the Van Gogh Museum from 11 October 2024 to 26 January 2025.
Artists including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley and Paul Cézanne used loose brushwork and bright colours to capture how they perceived light at a specific and changeable moment – an impression.
Their best paintings from Dutch public and private collections will be exhibited alongside Impressionistic pastels, sculptures, drawings and prints, also from Dutch collections.
But when and how did these French artworks come to the Netherlands? And was the Netherlands ready to embrace a modern art movement from Paris?
The exhibition shows how the visionary mindset and resolute dealings of a number of individuals, including Theo van Gogh, resulted in a range of outstanding works making their way to the Netherlands. But which masterpieces slipped through the net, and how can this be explained?
The installation Boulevard of Broken Dreams showcases Impressionist masterpieces that could have become part of the national collection if other decisions had been made. The installation was designed by light artist Nick Verstand (1984).
Claude Monet, Champ de coquelicots, 1881, oil on canvas, Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, acquired with the collection of: D.G. van Beuningen 1958
This six-part special explores Impressionism, highlights key masterpieces, and reveals the collectors who brought these artworks to Dutch museums. Look out for the first part in your inbox a day after subscribing.
Discover the stories hidden behind the artworks in the exhibition and book a private guided tour for you and your group.
What is it like to paint using dots or short dashes? This workshop starts with a close look at several paintings in which these techniques have been used. Then you'll create your own artwork in the studio.
In the video Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho explains how the exhibition came about. Dutch spoken, English and Dutch subtitles available.
Discover more about the art in the exhibition with the interactive audio tour, available in twelve languages: English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, Japanese, and Ukrainian. You can easily book the audio tour online, together with your entrance ticket.
The gallery texts for this exhibition are also available in a downloadable PDF. Prefer not to read from a screen? A booklet with the collated gallery texts, printed in large font, is available at the Information Desk in the Atrium.
Download the gallery texts PDF, 1.5 MB
The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue 150 Years of Impressionism – The Netherlands Sees the Light, which will continue to be a reference book after the exhibition ends. This richly illustrated publication brings together information about the French Impressionist masterpieces in Dutch public collections for the first time, including paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures.
This publication includes descriptions of each work, delving into how it arrived in the Netherlands and who played a pivotal role in that process. Available in the museum shop and webstore, in English and Dutch, € 34.95.
The exhibition Vive l’impressionnisme! Masterpieces from Dutch Collections is organised together with Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and is underpinned by a unique collaboration with other prominent Dutch public and private collections, such as:
This exhibition is supported by:
Watch the video tour of the exhibition.
Alfred Sisley, Un verger au printemps, 1881, oil on canvas, Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, acquired with the collection of: D.G. van Beuningen 1958
Claude Monet, La maison du pêcheur, Varengeville, 1882, Oil on canvas, 71,5 × 58 cm, Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Berthe Morisot, Walk in the Woods, 1876
Claude Monet, Tulip Fields near The Hague, 1886
