lsanderson | Paris Rediscovers Monet’s Magic at Grand Palais

A visitor takes in two views of the House of Parliament by Claude Monet at the current show at the Grand Palais in Paris.
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
Published: October 4, 2010

PARIS — Poor Claude Monet.

Like white noise, he’s everywhere and invisible, the staple of countless dentists’ offices. Old hat for more than a century now. Is it too late to recapture some of the shock and thrill that caused horrified Parisians in the 1870s to perceive his work as “leprous”?

Amazingly, no, it’s not. The Monet show that just opened here at the Grand Palais is a start. The biggest art spectacle in Europe this fall, with some 160 paintings, it is, believe it or not, the first full-dress overview Paris has staged in decades, the first chance anywhere to see the whole sweep of his work in some time. The French are treating it like a national celebration. President Nicolas Sarkozy contributed a note to the catalog extolling this “unmistakable emblem of the international influence of French culture.” The exhibition would have been a box office smash even if it had corralled fewer of Monet’s benchmarks.

It happens to be ravishing. More