Monet in Budapest
Museum of fine arts plays host to french artist and his friends
Written by Nancy Laforest

The Budapest Museum of Fine Arts is temporarily home to a top-notch collection from the Impressionist era. Entitled: ‘Claude Monet and Friends,’ the exhibition displays works of art from over 30 European and American collections. Until mid-March, visitors can travel back in time through the artworks of Monet and his contemporaries.

”I can’t recall a collection in Hungary of such international importance,” said Melinda Erdôháti, one of the organizers of the ‘Claude Monet and Friends’ exhibit. Indisputably the biggest art event of the year, the exhibition is a growing experience for all. “It has been exactly 90 years since the Impressionists last came to Hungary,” said Miklós Mojzer, general director of the museum. He retells how the Impressionist paintings were received at that time. “Impressionists had a strange and unknown willingness to represent nature as living, ambient. Viewers of the early 1900s were often taken aback by the audacity of the artists, at their experimentation with color and brushwork.” Today, impressionism is a much-appreciated artistic genre the world around. From the general public, most can certainly describe one or two works by big names like Monet or Renoir. “It is one of the last movements where the general public can easily understand the artist,” adds Erdôháti. The long queues outside the museum in the cold December wind are testimony to the public’s interest.
In collaboration with the Dijon Museum of Fine Arts and the French Institute in Budapest, ‘Claude Monet and Friends’ promotes an exchange between the Hungarian and French art worlds. Opened on Dec. 1, the exhibit is a closing gesture for the FranciArt cultural season in Hungary. On display are some of the turn of the century’s finest paintings, drawings and sculptures. Homage to the history of Impressionism, works by Renoir, Manet and Boudin, to name only a few, accompany 25 of Claude Monet’s masterpieces. Under the direction of curator Judit Geskó, head of the Drawing and Stamps at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, and Emmanuel Starcky, from the Dijon Museum of Fine Arts, the exhibited works were borrowed from over 30 museums worldwide. “Some private collectors wouldn’t lend us pieces because they’ve already traveled too much,” said Erdôháti. To comply with safety measures, the eight exhibition rooms allow for a maximum of 200 people at a time. The rooms, which are in the renovated wing of the museum, use minimal lighting and the temperature is kept at 20C degrees. Some visitors have complained that these conditions are far from ideal, yet for works of art that are over 140 years old, added precautions should definitely be taken, the museum announced. With artworks on loan from 17 French private collection and 12 others from the rest of Europe, ‘Claude Monet and Friends’ is enriched by the host museum’s permanent collection, which already contains three paintings by Monet and a fine representation of Jongkind, Pissarro, Whistler, Sisley and more. Most of Rodin’s sculptures also come from the Hungarian collection. Monet’s renowned 1869 La Grenouillére was borrowed from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, as was Edward Manet’s masterpiece of Monet and his family in the garden. Renoir’s 1874 depiction of Camille Monet and son comes from the Washington National Gallery of Art, and is currently displayed beside Manet’s version of the same scene. “The two were painted simultaneously, yet offer differing perspectives of Monet and his family,” explained Erdőháti.

Hungary’s Museum of Fine Arts is playing host to a renowned collection of famous Impressionist Claude Monet through mid-March

Most of the ‘Claude Monet and Friends’ exhibit focuses on landscapes as Impressionism in its beginnings was an aesthetic research of the perpetual movement of water and sky. Monet himself was obsessed with water scenery and reflections. From Normandy to London, and Holland to Venice, museum visitors can travel back through space and time with the artists. The exhibit is a history lesson, pleasing to the eye and enriching for the soul. To help children discover art, the museum has also published two workbooks for them, at HUF 200 apiece. “We want to educate young people and make art accessible to them,” said Erdôháti. “We want to teach them to see the world differently, and to develop their own visions.