Claude Monet (1840-1926)

First, there’s Monet, with his “Impression, Sunrise” hanging on the wall, the painting that, through Louis Leroy, made him a young “Impressionist painter.” Also present are paintings from the “Haystacks,” “Poplars,” and the “Japanese Water Lily Bridge” series.

Behind Monet, holding a palette in front of a huge canvas, we see a Japanese man chatting with Monet’s wife. Indeed, in the last years of Monet’s life, Japanese collectors frequently visited him in Giverny (one of whom was Mme Kuroki, Princess Matsukata), who amassed a huge collection that became an important part of the collection of the National Museum of Western Art in Japan, which opened in 1939.