Monet in Venice

Ground-breaking Impressionist artist Claude Monet (1840-1926) visited Venice in the Autumn/Winter of 1908; relatively late in his career. Combining his immense talent for conveying bodies of water, as seen in his Water Lilies series, with bold architectural styles, the mere 37 canvases which he produced there are now considered some of his best-known and loved works. Critically acclaimed across the world, most reside in prestigious museums and private collections with one such piece ‘Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute’ selling at auction for £45 million in May 2022.

Artist John Myatt chose to interpret this crucial body of work because he regards it to be "the last of Monet's great painting campaigns" as well as the artistic difficulty of the subject matter; noting: "the autumn light reflected on and off the water that [Monet] was trying so hard to capture [...] having been there myself I know how hard this can be". He also travelled to Venice to follow in Monet's footsteps and truly capture the essence of the original paintings. 

"It is one thing to study Monet’s painting at first-hand, in a gallery perhaps, and look at the way he blended colour and tone, but it’s something else to stand where he stood and see what he saw and painted [...] Venice is still the Venice that he would have seen. Exactly the same, nothing has changed. The Palazzo Dario cursed and haunted by ghosts. The views from the roof-top to San Giorgio Maggiore and Santa Maria della Salute. The Grand Canal, the Doge’s Palace, and more. It was fascinating to see Venice through my own eyes and, in a way, through his eyes too."-John Myatt.

Immensely talented and internationally acclaimed, contemporary artist John Myatt, who was involved in what Scotland Yard described as ‘the biggest art fraud of the 20th century’, has skilfully interpreted Monet’s work in these five limited edition artworks so that they evoke the same dream-like quality and iconic Venetian scenery as Monet’s originals that shook the world.