Monet painting to tour English galleries including Hull Ferens
2025-02-04
Category: entertainment

A Monet masterpiece from the National Gallery is to be exhibited in four galleries around England.The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil, painted in 1872, will be displayed at venues including the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. The work depicts a winter's day on the banks of a river on the outskirts of Paris.The tour, which will being in the autumn and run throughout next year, will also take in the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, South Shields Museum and Art Gallery and the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool.
It will be only the second time the artwork has left the London collection in 20 years.As part of the exhibition, the Ferens' will hold a "multi-sensory immersive space" featuring smells, sounds and touchable works designed for disabled and neurodivergent visitors, Hull City Council said.Councillor Rob Pritchard said: "It is a great honour to be part of this prestigious partnership with the National Gallery, offering residents and visitors to Hull a chance to see such a significant piece of artwork up close."
The painting is due to be displayed at the Ferens for three months from 19 June next year. It will be the fourth stop on the National Gallery "Masterpiece" tour, which is due to begin in Norwich in September this year, before moving on to South Shields (from January 2026) and Blackpool (from March 2026). Claude Monet, who died in 1926, was a founder of impressionism. His most famous works include his Water Lilies and Haystacks series.In 2019, a Haystacks painting of 1890 sold at Sotheby's for $110.7m (£85.7m).National Gallery Director Sir Gabriele Finaldi said more than a million people had attended previous Masterpiece exhibitions."The National Gallery's collection belongs to all of us," he said."It is part of our duty and our honour to look after these paintings and to bring them to where people are, not just expect them to come to us."Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.