May 24 – November 25, 2001
Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries
Fifty-three paintings, watercolors, and drawings by 18 of the greatest artists who worked in France in the 19th and early 20th centuries comprise the Annenberg collection, which returns to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for six months beginning May 24, 2001. This annual event, now in its eighth year, provides an exceptional opportunity for visitors to view this renowned collection, which is installed in three central rooms within the Museum's Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries.
Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum, stated: "For six months out of each year, this extraordinary loan significantly enriches and expands the breadth of the Museum's collections in both beauty and importance. I can only express my gratitude to the Annenbergs for their willingness to part annually with their collection, lovingly gathered over a period of 40 years, for the sole benefit of making these works accessible to the public."
The Annenberg collection encompasses figure painting, landscape, and still life, and celebrates the many facets of avant-garde painting in France from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. The artists whose works are included in the Annenberg collection are the luminaries of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements: Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Henri Fantin-Latour, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin.
Earlier works by Camille Corot and Eugène Boudin, and later works by Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque are also featured.
The Annenberg collection will eventually join the Metropolitan's holdings of European paintings.
May 23, 2001
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