Painting Exhibition: The Unknown Monet

The Unknown Monet was an exhibition which challenged the long-held understanding of Claude Monet's artistic process, revealing that he didn't paint directly onto his canvases all the time, that he did indeed create studies and sketches to develop his ideas for paintings. The exhibition also showcased Monet's work done using pastel. For painters it provided an intriguing new look at Monet's working methods, and the role sketching and drawing had in his art.

The Unknown Monet opened at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (17 March to 10 June 2007) before moving to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts (24 June to 16 September 2007). The exhibition catalog by James A. Ganz and Richard Kendall (published by Yale University Press, (read review) contains new biographical information about the life of the young Monet gleaned from an unpublished manuscript entitled the Grand Journal by Comte Théophile Beguin Billecocq, a friend of the artist's family.