Photo by Christine Jackson.
Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape
Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape
A grand homecoming is underway at the Saint Louis Art Museum. After a French getaway, where it was reunited with the other two panels of the “Agapanthus” triptych, the museum’s central panel of Claude Monet’s momentous water lily painting has returned to the SLAM galleries.
The work can now be found in the museum’s East Building special exhibition gallery as a highlight of Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape, on view March 25 through June 25.
“We have a collection that makes a show like this relevant, but it is also the expertise that we have in house that makes it possible,” says Min Jung Kim, the Barbara B. Taylor Director of the St. Louis Art Museum. “Simon Kelly, our curator of modern and contemporary art, has done truly a marvelous job examining this intricate and complex relationship between Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell.”
Monet/Mitchell places the work of French Impressionist Monet in conversation with American Abstract Expressionist Joan Mitchell, who left the U.S. to live as an expatriate in France, living in Vétheuil from 1968–1992. From her home—which looked out over Monet’s cottage and was only 10 minutes from his beloved Giverny—Mitchell embraced the French landscape and produced large-scale works inspired by the trees, flowers, fields, and mountains of northern France. Beginning in the late ‘60s, critics drew frequent comparisons between the two artists, which Mitchell at first appreciated, but grew to resent as time went on.
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Joan Mitchell, American, 1925–1992; “Red Tree”, 1976; oil on canvas; 110 3/8 x 63 inches; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris 2023.105; © Estate of Joan Mitchell
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Claude Monet, French, 1840–1926; “Weeping Willow”, 1922; oil on canvas; 45 11/16 x 35 1/16 inches; Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris 2023.104; © Musee Marmottan Monet, Academie des beaux-arts, Paris
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Claude Monet, French, 1840–1926; Water Lilies, 1914–1917; oil on canvas; 59 7/16 x 79 1/8 inches; Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris 2023.96; © Musée Marmottan Monet, Academie des Beaux-Arts, Paris
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Joan Mitchell, American, 1925–1992; “Two Sunflowers”, 1980; oil on canvas; diptych: 110 1/16 x 142 inches; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris 2023.108a,b; © Estate of Joan Mitchell
Monumental works are given room to breathe and make their impact in the airy space, and a recording of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra playing Debussy’s “Nocturnes” (a shared favorite between Monet and Mitchell) can be heard throughout. Across the five galleries focusing on the shared subjects and techniques of the two artists, a dialogue emerges. The ways that Mitchell, who was born just a year before the death of Monet, responds to and rejects elements of the artist’s work are clear.
“A lot of critics talked about Mitchell as inheriting a tradition,” says Kelly. “She was very aware of that, and I think initially liked it, but then she just got fed up with it. Everyone was always comparing her to Monet, and that’s why later she starts to say in interviews that Monet was not a good colorist and she wasn’t influenced by him. She wanted to separate herself from him, so there’s this progression in her attitude toward Monet.”
Shown broadly chronologically, the works grow more and more similar as the galleries go on, even as Mitchell was trying to distance herself from Monet in later years. Monet’s deteriorating eyesight affected the colors and level of abstraction in his work, and by the exhibition’s final gallery, the through lines from Monet to Mitchell are crystal clear. Similar color palettes, subject matter, gestural brushwork, and heavily abstracted forms fill the space, offering a succinct and definitive conclusion to this meandering conversation between the two artists.
“[‘Ici’] is a sort of the culminating painting of the exhibition, and this is our painting…It's one of Mitchell's last paintings—it was made in the final year of her life. It is poignant for me because, at this time, she was very sick,” says Kelly. “She had cancer and she was physically not strong. But this painting still has this incredible vibrancy and energy to it. And I still see references to nature, to the landscape, to the garden that was always such an inspiration for her. I’m glad that we can sort of culminate this show with this work that was such an important acquisition for the museum.”
Joan Mitchell, American, 1925–1992; “Ici”, 1992; oil on canvas; left panel: 102 x 78 3/4 inches, right panel: 102 3/8 x 78 7/8 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Funds given by the Shoenberg Foundation, Inc. 86:1993a,b; © Estate of Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell's "Ici"
Monet/Mitchell offers a unique chance for visitors to experience works by both artists that have rarely—or never—been shown in St. Louis. Of the 12 Monets featured, just six have been shown locally in the past. Of the 12 works by Mitchell on display, only “Ici” has ever been shown in St. Louis.
The exhibition also marks the first iteration of one of SLAM’s newest initiatives, “Close Look.” The online self-guided experience gives viewers an in-depth look at a featured work, in this case “Water Lilies.” Scrolling through the resource reveals interesting information about technical aspects of the painting, including revisions, history, and the featured plants.
Screenshot from the "Close Look" digital experience.
Further interactive elements can be found throughout Monet/Mitchell. In the Explore Lab, visitors are encouraged to draw their own landscapes based on images provided by Forest Park Forever. For those looking for some guidance as they explore the works, an 11-stop audio tour is available and features commentary from Kim, Kelly, and several other SLAM staff members, in addition to three guest speakers: professor and composer Christopher Stark, artist and friend of Mitchell Bill Scott, and Derek Lyle of the Missouri Botanical Garden. An accompanying Spotify playlist is available via QR code for those who wish to experience the many songs referenced by Stark in his analysis of Mitchell’s “Plowed Field.”
While the ticketed exhibition officially opens to the public March 25, the museum will host a free public preview of Monet/Michell on March 24 beginning at 4 p.m. The event will feature cocktails in Sculpture Hall, live French jazz from Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris, and a ticketed lecture titled “Natural Inspirations: A Conversation about Monet and Mitchell. A full schedule of additional programming around the exhibition is available at slam.org/events.
Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape runs March 25 through June 25 at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, $6 for children, and free for members and children 5 and under. Tickets are available in person or online via MetroTix.
