Monet’s Woman with a Parasol

London, Sept. 13: A cliché about the French artist Oscar Claude Monet not being honoured in his own land is about to be buried.

This is something with which Satyajit Ray, for example, might have sympathised. It is said cinema audiences in Calcutta sat up and took notice of the disregarded genius in their midst only after Pather Panchali was named Best Human Document at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

The world might have admired Monet’s impressionist paintings as reflecting all that was best about France and its art but at home, apparently, he did not always meet the exacting standards of the country’s hyper-critical “intellectuals”.

All that is about to change, however, with France, at last, recognising the talents of Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926).

Or as The Times, London, headlined the story this morning: “Monet finally set to make a good impression at home.”

The world knows Monet as the founder of the French impressionist school of painting. Indeed, the term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant).

Close up, the strokes looked blurred, but from a distance, Monet showed even the night has shapes and colours, as he did with his paintings of the Houses of Parliament in London. He is best known, though, for his series on water lilies.

Claude Monet

The first major exhibition of Monet’s work in over 30 years will take place at the Grand Palais in Paris from September 22, 2010, to January 24, 2011. It is believed that there will be over 200 paintings on display from both French and foreign museums.

“This showcase event for the Paris arts calendar in 2010 will trace the 19th century painter’s long career, starting with his early landscapes in Normandy and the Paris region from the 1870s through to the iconic and well-known depictions of his garden and ponds in Giverny,” the museum announced. “Following a major Picasso show at the Grand Palais in 2008 that attracted 784,000 visitors, the Monet exhibition is predicted to attract in excess of half a million visitors.”

Indian art lovers headed for Paris would do well to try and buy their tickets in advance.

An art expert said: “Not only is the exhibition itself one not to be missed by anyone with a passion for Claude Monet’s art, or impressionist art in general, but the setting in the Grand Palais will provide a wonderful ambience. Built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900, the Grand Palais covers some 775,000 square feet in the form of an H and its glass roof is recognisable from a long distance, the biggest in Europe.”

The Times, London, today developed the theme of great people winning universal acclaim – except at home. “Mention Claude Monet and the world thinks of France and the play of light on its seasides, countryside and the gardens…. Monet’s glory, however, has never been as great at home as abroad.”

According to Dr Richard Thomson, co-curator of the exhibition, “the world has never seen such a vast collection of Monets”.

Thomson, who is professor of fine arts at Edinburgh University, has advised on the selection of works for the exhibition and written much of the 375-page catalogue for the show.

He says Monet was pumping out art for US collectors by the late 1880s. “There was already a sense in the 1880s that Monet was pandering to an American market.”

Thomson argues that, far from being an “easy” and decorative painter, Monet was a tough pioneer who continued to break new ground right up to his death in 1926 at the age of 86.

The Times has even a leader on the subject. “British public opinion has always been more grudging than rest of the world in its admiration of David Beckham. In the case of Claude Monet, such asymmetries are even more marked. For the rest of the world, Monet has become almost synonymous with the idea of France itself – its light and landscapes, its epicurean pleasures and pastimes. But the French have proved harder to please….Where the world nodded in collective approval, France shrugged its shoulders.”