A major exhibition at San Francisco's de Young Museum, titled 'Monet and Venice,' brings together over 100 works, focusing on the two dozen paintings Claude Monet created during his only visit to the city in 1908. The show contextualizes his Venetian output with works by contemporaries like J.M.W. Turner, John Singer Sargent, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, revealing that the trip was almost cancelled and was initially planned as a brief holiday.
The exhibition highlights a pivotal, late-career moment for the Impressionist master, who was 68 and initially hesitant to paint a city so famously depicted by others. It matters because it showcases Monet's unique response to Venice's light and water at a mature stage in his career, explores the artistic dialogue and friendly competition among European painters of the era, and presents a body of work that almost never existed due to the trip's precarious planning.