Museée de l'Orangerie

Museée de l'Orangerie Brady Brenot, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons World War I, Monet wrote to his friend Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France, offering two huge water lily panels to the nation. This was the start of the magnificent display at the Museée de l’Orangerie, which Monet worked on during his last years, specifying exactly how the panels should be hung to place the viewer at the centre of the pond. He died the year before the museum opened in 1927. By then, Impressionism had fallen out of fashion, public interest was limited, and it was not until after the Second World War that Monet and his fellow Impressionists were in vogue once again. They have remained popular ever since. Major Monet collections In Normandy, the Fine Arts Museum in Rouen is home to the largest Impressionist collection outside Paris (entry is free), and in Le Havre, the André Malraux Museum of Modern Art - MuMa - will stage a centenary exhibition, ‘Monet in Le Havre’, from 5 June to 27 September. In Paris, see masterpieces by Monet at the Musée Marmottan Monet and at the Musée d’Orsay, home to the world’s largest collection of Impression painting. Impressionism for our times The Impressionists were innovative in both their subject matter and techniques, taking collective action to create an artists’ cooperative. In 2010, an idea emerged in Normandy to build an event to celebrate the region by showcasing its Impressionist heritage alongside the contemporary art scene. The fifth Normandie Impressioniste event in 2024 recorded over two million visits through a multidisciplinary programme of art and culture. In 2026, for the first time in its history, the festival is entirely dedicated to contemporary art. Important artists from France and across the world have been invited to create an original tribute to Monet based around the theme of the garden: normandie-impressionniste.fr/en Following the Seine from Le Havre through Honfleur, Rouen and Vernon to Paris, Normandie Impressioniste 2026 will feature paintings and photographs, videography and even firework displays in public gardens and museums, in churches and on riverbanks. Monet, one feels, would have been thrilled. 34 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 35