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Monet: A Bridge to Modernity
October 28, 2015 - February 15, 2016
National Gallery of Canada, 380 Sussex Dr
Price: $12 (adults); $10 (seniors and full-time students); $6 (youth: 12-19); $24 (families: two adults and three youth). Admission is free for children under the age of 12 and for Members

This focus exhibition brings together twelve seminal paintings from prestigious public and private collections around the world. Monet painted these works in Argenteuil, a bustling suburb of Paris where he settled in late 1871 after his self-imposed exile in London and Holland during the Franco-Prussian war (1870–1871).

Monet: A Bridge to Modernity casts new light on Le pont de bois as it delves into the historic, sociological and artistic context of the early years of Impressionism in the early 1870s. The twelve paintings on view are accompanied by a collection of nineteenth-century photographs, illustrations, guide books, Japanese prints and postcards.

About the painting Le pont de bois
Le pont de bois shows the reconstruction of the Argenteuil highway bridge destroyed during the Franco-Prussian war that crosses the Seine near Monet’s home and that fascinated the artist. Here he offers us a glimpse of modern life: the bridge bustles with the traffic of workers returning home on foot and by carriage, while in the distance a plume of smoke rises from a steamboat chugging along the river.

Exhibition curator
This dossier exhibition was organized by Anabelle Kienle Poňka, Associate Curator of European and American Art.