Mid-May through mid-November 2000
Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries, 2nd floor
Fifty-three paintings, watercolors, and drawings by 18 of the greatest artists who worked in France in the 19th and early 20th century comprise the Annenberg collection, which will return to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for six months beginning in May 2000. This annual event, now in its sixth year, provides an exceptional opportunity for visitors to experience this renowned private collection. The works are shown in the Museum's Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries, hung together in three central rooms, surrounded by the Met's own collection of 19th-century European paintings.
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 featured in the Annenberg collection represent the luminaries of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movement: Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Henri Fantin-Latour, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh. Earlier works by Camille Corot and Eugène Boudin, and later works by Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque complete the selection.
The Annenberg collection eventually will enter the Metropolitan's collection of European paintings.
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November 10, 1999
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