Mad for Monet

The Monet exhibit at the Grand Palais has been the hot ticket for art lovers this season -- perhaps too pedestrian for the serious art critics but dearly beloved by the rest of us.  But if you've put off going until now, you might think twice.  The show closes on Sunday and my guess is that all the advance tickets are sold.  When I finally got my act together to go earlier this week, the wait for walk up visitors was 7 hours.  The crowd was such that even those of us with the season pass (which normally allows you to waltz right in) had to wait a good 40 minutes to get through the front door. 

Once inside, the first two or three rooms were no picnic -- simply wall to wall people with lots of jockeying and a little bit of shoving for a better view.  But the crowds thinned as I moved through the exhibit and by the time I got to the series of haystacks, the cathedral in Rouen, and the houses of the British Parliament at different times of day, there was plenty of space to breathe and admire.   While I had seen many of the pieces before -- at the Musee d'Orsay and the National Gallery in Washington (which donated a considerable number of works to this show) -- there was something about seeing them after having visited Giverny, Vetheuil, Chatou, and other Monet favorites that made it extra special.

If you're in town and lost out on the show, there's another one at the Musee Rodin through the 30th and at Musee Marmottan through mid February.