Monet and Venice | de Young Museum | March 21–July 26, 2026

Monet and Venice

March 21–July 26, 2026
Monet Exhibition
Curated by Melissa E. Buron and Lisa Small
Image: Claude Monet. The Grand Canal, Venice, 1908. de Young Museum, San Francisco.

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Overview

Today’s LOVE LETTER TO ART is Monet and Venice at the de Young Museum, which reunites 22 of the 37 Venetian paintings Claude Monet created during his first and only visit to Venice in 1908, alongside masterpieces from across his career, including the iconic Water Lilies. Curated by Melissa E. Buron (V&A) and Lisa Small (Brooklyn Museum), the exhibition explores Venice as both a destination and an enduring source of artistic inspiration through works by artists such as J. M. W. Turner and John Singer Sargent.

The show tells the story of Monet’s monumental trip to Venice in 1908, when he was 68 years old. During these twilight years of his life, he was struggling with his artistic expression, creating Water Lilies that his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, deemed too garish to be sellable (also in the exhibition). Durand-Ruel suggested Monet take a vacation to try to get his groove back, so he and his wife, Alice, went to Venice—and to his surprise, he fell completely in love with the city.

Prior to Monet’s visit to Venice in 1908, he considered it a place “too beautiful to be painted,” which has been interpreted to mean he believed the city’s beauty eclipsed the nuances that make a place interesting. Perhaps he viewed it as a subject so widely painted by artists over the centuries that it had become an overexposed subject matter, or what we know today as being “played out.

Preview Monet and Venice. de Young Museum, San Francisco. 

Shown here:
1) In 1908, at 68 years old, Claude Monet made his first and only trip to Venice with his wife, Alice.
2) Although he once believed Venice was “too beautiful to be painted,” the city would become one of the most important subjects of his career.
3) During the twilight years of his career, Monet was creating Water Lilies that were considered too garish to sell, so his dealer encouraged him to take a vacation to renew his artistic vision.
4) The exhibition reunites 22 of the 37 paintings Monet created during his monumental visit to Venice.
5) The Venetian paintings may appear repetitive at first, but together they reveal an artist deliberately refining his technique.
6) Venice’s shimmering waters and luminous atmosphere challenged Monet to rethink how he painted light, reflection, and color.
7) Seen alongside the Water Lilies, they reveal how a single trip helped shape the final chapter of Monet’s artistic legacy.
8) Completed after Alice’s death, the Venice paintings became both a tribute to the city and a deeply personal remembrance of their final journey together.

It seems Venice softened Monet as a person, hence as an artist, given that it was the last trip he and Alice would take together before her death in 1911. Her letters reveal the tender love she had for Monet—the kind that develops only after many years of companionship—and the joy of watching her husband rediscover his artistic spark while the two explored the city together. Monet struggled to complete the Venetian paintings as he grieved her loss, but eventually finished them for his 1912 exhibition, Claude Monet: Venise, creating a series that served as a homage to Alice and Venice.

There are no series among these views of Venice, but only different motifs repeated once, twice or three times.
— Claude Monet

The repetitive style of this exhibition may not appeal to some visitors, as at first glance the galleries appear to be filled with the same paintings—and they are, to some degree, since Monet was painting many of the same buildings and views at the same time of day, a departure from his usual practice of painting the same view at different times of day. But if you think about what he was actually doing, the whole trip, though it was a “vacation” with Alice, was an exercise in challenging his painting skills, technique, and eye. Painting Venice’s waters and views helped him come back to his Water Lilies with a different understanding.

Anyone who’s ever been in a creative slump will appreciate this show. After all, everyone loves a good comeback story. Many a time, all it takes is a change of scenery, like the illuminated waters of Venice, to find your way forward. And the Water Lilies at the end are just incredible—a testament to why Monet remains one of the most revered painters of all time.

The exhibition’s accompanying catalogue can be purchased at the FAMSF store for $39.95/$35.96 (members) and on Amazon as well.

🗓 Monet and Venice is on view until July 26, 2026 at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park.
💌 Did you see the show(s) or try any of our recommendations? What did you think? Let us know in the comments (in the Reviews section located on the second tab at the top of the page).

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⭐ LEGION OF HONOR EXHIBITIONS:

• *The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy | Discover how the Etruscans—whose innovations helped shape Roman civilization—transformed art, architecture, engineering, and daily life through more than 150 remarkable ancient artifacts. | Closes Sept. 20, 2026
• Drawn to Venice | More than 30 drawings and prints trace the artistic evolution of Venice and the Veneto from the Renaissance through the Rococo, featuring works by Canaletto, Guardi, Rosalba Carriera, and the Tiepolo family. | Closes Aug. 16, 2026

⭐ UPCOMING LEGION OF HONOR EXHIBITIONS:

• Miró: Proof Against All | Explore Joan Miró’s celebrated Surrealist artist’s book À toute épreuve, a vibrant collaboration with poet Paul Éluard that showcases the artist’s groundbreaking achievements in printmaking and book illustration. | July 25, 2026–July 25, 2027
• Eternal Paris: Photographing the City of Light | Nearly 50 photographs trace how 19th- and early 20th-century photographers captured Paris’s monuments, upheavals, and transformation into a modern cultural capital. | Sept. 5, 2026–Feb. 28, 2027

Currently on View at FAMSF’s de Young Museum

Monet and Venice | March 21, 2026–July 26, 2026

Although Claude Monet visited Venice only once, his paintings of the city are among his most dazzling. This exhibition, co-organized with the Brooklyn Museum, is the first dedicated to Monet’s Venetian cityscapes since their debut over a century ago. Featuring more than 100 artworks, the exhibition places Monet’s Venice paintings alongside select works from across his career, including his Water Lilies, as well as Venetian views by artists such as Manet, Renoir, and Canaletto. Unlike the bustling scenes painted by other artists, Monet’s Venice is eerily deserted, its architecture, buildings, and canals dissolving in an encompassing, hazy light he described as the enveloppe. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience Monet’s vision of the famed Italian city.

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Contemporary Painting in Papua New Guinea: Mathias Kauage and His Family | March 30, 2024–Dec. 6, 2026

This exhibition features boldly colorful paintings of a radically changing world by contemporary Papua New Guinea artist Mathias Kauage and his family.

Rose B. Simpson: LEXICON | Aug. 30, 2025–Feb. 7, 2027

In this exhibition, Rose B. Simpson, a mixed-media artist from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, brings together two art forms: Pueblo pottery and classic cars.

Nengi Omuku: The Gathering | June 27, 2026–May 14, 2028

In her first US solo museum exhibition, painter Nengi Omuku shares dream-like scenes that imagine a better world for young Nigerians.

Rooted in Place: California Native Art | Aug. 26, 2025–Dec. 6, 2026

Part of the reimagining of our Arts of Indigenous America galleries, this is the first in a series of exhibitions that highlights specific regions of Native California. This installation explores the interconnections between art, ceremony, and the land in the Karuk, Yurok, Hupa, Tolowa, Tsnungwe, and Wiyot communities of northwestern California. The exhibition presents collection highlights alongside major loans, acquisitions, and commissions by contemporary artists.

Arts of Indigenous America | Aug. 26, 2025–Aug. 31, 2028

Celebrating the vibrancy and diversity of Indigenous American art, this new presentation features beloved collection highlights alongside major acquisitions and commissions by contemporary artists. In the most extensive reinstallation of this collection in 20 years, each of the four refreshed galleries explores a different aspect of the theme “Relationship to Place.” Developed with Native scholars and in consultation with communities of origin, the project centers Indigenous values and voices. Works spanning over a thousand years of history in all types of media challenge expectations about what Native art is and can be.

Treasures of the Pharaohs | Aug. 1, 2026–Jan. 31, 2027

This exhibition brings the world of the pharaohs to life through 130 exquisite works spanning 3,000 years of history.

Coming Soon to FAMSF’s de Young Museum

A Gallery of Their Own: Women Artists from the Carr and Goldblum Gift | Aug. 15, 2026 –Feb. 28, 2027

“A Gallery of Their Own” reveals the important role women artists have played in expanding the boundaries of photography, printmaking, and drawing.

Surface Tension: Artists from the Svane Gift and Beyond | Aug. 15, 2026–April 11, 2027

This de Young exhibition highlights contemporary artists with close ties to the Bay Area, and explores the surfaces of bodies and objects as critical sites of identity formation.

Currently on View at FAMSF’s Legion of Honor

*The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy | May 2–Sept. 20, 2026

Togas, temples, and even “Roman” numerals, widely credited to the Romans, were actually Etruscan innovations. This exhibition celebrates the Etruscans and their enduring legacy.

Drawn to Venice | Jan. 24–Aug. 16, 2026

This exhibition celebrates art in Venice through more than 30 drawings from the Renaissance to the Rococo period.

Coming Soon to FAMSF’s Legion of Honor

Miró: Proof Against All | July 25, 2026–July 25, 2027

This exhibition explores one of the great artist books of the 20th century, À toute épreuve (1958), a creative collaboration between two Surrealists — artist Joan Miró and poet Paul Éluard.

Eternal Paris: Photographing the City of Light | Sept. 5, 2026 – Feb. 28, 2027

Eternal Paris explores how photographers in the 19th and early 20th centuries used the camera to celebrate and preserve the cultural heritage of the City of Light.

A LOVE LETTER TO ART RECOMMENDS

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Co-Curator Melissa E. Buron’s Talk on Monet and Venice. de Young Museum, San Francisco. 

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