Speed Museum Opens Exhibit of Impressionist Landscapes

Are you battling a dreary winter’s day? Then a visit to the Speed Museum may be what the doctor ordered.

From Feb. 4 through May 22, the Speed is hosting an exhibition of Impressionist landscape paintings. Work by the famous French and American Impressionists Monet, Seurat, Pissarro, Courbet, Singer Sargent and Childe Hassam will be on display, along with a photographic exhibit of Monet’s famous Gardens at Giverny.

While a number of the pieces are from a collection on tour from the Brooklyn Museum of Art, paintings from the Speed’s own collection as well as loaned pieces from public and private collections are also on exhibit. That includes two paintings from Kentucky’s own Impressionist painter, the late Paul Sawyier of Frankfort.

Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet sought to capture the play of light on their subjects. Monet’s garden at Giverny in France inspired some of his famous paintings in which one glimpses the garden’s beauty at a particular moment in time.

In 1974, photographer Stephen Shore sought to capture on film the garden locations that inspired Monet. These photographs are included in the exhibit, and displayed after one peruses the paintings.

But not all of the works feature landscapes. The American pieces depict beaches, factories, tenements and recognizable landmarks such as Central Park with “lively broken brushwork” and brilliant colors, according to a museum news release.

Although admission to the Speed is free, admission to the Impressionist exhibit is $10, or $5 for Museum members.

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