Monet and the Modern City

Claude Monet and his contemporaries responded to the urban industrial landscape through works that convey the power and promise of modernization. Organized by curator Akemi May, this exhibition gives context to Monet’s famous Waterloo Bridge series by examining works by other artists of his time. Monet and the Modern City explores both the French Impressionist’s process of serial painting and the enduring theme of industry in art.

Carnegie Museum of Art’s own Waterloo Bridge painting is presented alongside two others from the series, thanks to the Worcester Art Museum and the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Together, these works suggest the range of moods and colors that serial painting can produce. Notable pieces by Camille Pissarro, Jean-Emile Laboureur, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler provide a broader frame of reference for treating the urban industrial landscape as subject.

Monet and the Modern City is organized by Akemi May, assistant curator of fine arts at CMOA, in collaboration with the Worcester Art Museum and the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester.