(AAPNW-OH) – Through February 11, 2011 at the Akron Art Museum, Claude Monet’s “Wisteria” is on view in the C. Blake McDowell, Jr. Gallery. The work, which is on loan from the Allen Memorial Museum at Oberlin College, is one of nine remaining paintings planned as part of a decorative mural for the cycle of water lily murals that Monet offered to the French government following World War I.
Originally a pavilion was planned on the grounds of the Hotel Biron, which is now the Musée Rodin, the mural project never developed. All nine canvases, dating from 1919-20, were influenced by the imported white and lilac wisteria that grew on the Japanese-style bridge in Monet’s garden.
The “Wisteria” hangs among other Impressionist masterpieces, such as two works by Frederick Frieseke, who was an American painter impacted by French Impressionism to the point where he moved to Giverny to be near Monet.
Call 330.376.9186 or see www.akronartmuseum.org for more information, better yet, stop in person at One South High Street to view this masterpiece.