The San Diego Museum of Art
March 19 through August 7, 2022
This marks the first time the Bemberg Foundation’s Impressionism collection, which rarely leaves its permanent home in France, has traveled to California and is one of only two showcases in the United States.
Organized by the Bemberg Foundation, based at the historic Hôtel d’Assézat in Toulouse, France, the exhibition features more than 60 works produced between the 1870s to 1930s. This is the second installment of a loan from the Bemberg Foundation, following the Cranach to Canaletto exhibition on view at the Museum from June to September 2021.
Among the artists represented are renowned painters Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Pablo Picasso, Alfred Sisley, while Pierre Bonnard is represented by over ten remarkable examples.
Impressionism, and the movements it inspired, such as Pointillism and Fauvism, paved the way for Modernism, as early works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse in the exhibition illustrate. Monet to Matisse will feature two exclusive works not previously on view in Houston, the only other city in the U.S. to receive the collection.
Additional highlights include Claude Monet’s Boats on the Beach at Étretat, 1883; Camille Pissarro’s Portrait of the Artist’s Son Felix Dressed in a Skirt, 1883; Pierre Bonnard’s Le Cannet, 1930; Edgar Degas’ Woman at a Dressing Table, 1889; and Paul Cezanne’s Mountainous Landscape near Aix, 1890-1895.
The exhibition is composed entirely of works from The Bemberg Foundation and is co-curated by Philippe Cros, the former director of the Bemberg Foundation, and Michael Brown, Ph.D., Curator of European Art at The San Diego Museum of Art. The exhibition is made possible in collaboration with Manifesto Expo.
Georges Bemberg was an Argentina-born French collector, world traveler and Harvard-trained scholar, who amassed an extraordinary collection of Western art from the end of the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Bemberg’s private collection was preserved through the Foundation.