Le décor impressionniste: Aux sources des Nymphéas 

Organised by the French public institution, the Établissement Public des musée d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie – Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, in exceptionnal partnership with the National Gallery, London, the exhibition Le décor impressionniste : Aux sources des Nymphéas traces the origins of the creation of the famous mural painted by Claude Monet and reviews the art of decoration practised by the Impressionists.

From the late 1850s and the origins of Impressionism to the 1920s, when Monet completed his Nymphéas, the links between the Impressionists and decoration are varied, fruitful and central in many ways. Le décor impressionniste: Aux sources des Nymphéas aims to explore this quite different angle on the history of Impressionism, highlighting specific works by Bracquemond, Boudin, Caillebotte, Cassatt, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro and Renoir, brought together from across the world, some rarely or never, up until now, put on public display in France. Via one hundred paintings, drawings and objects, the exhibition reveals how the Impressionists set out on a new path, guided by the conviction that art, to quote Renoir, is above all meant “to brighten up the walls”!