Fourth grade students from Brown Elementary School viewed something special at the St. Louis Art Museum, November 18. For the first time in more than three decades, all three portions of impressionist painter Claude Monet’s water lily triptych, or a set of three large panels, have been reunited.
“The Monet exhibit is an important one because the panels will be displayed together the way the artist originally intended for them to be,” said Brown art teacher Linda Goedeker. “My students study impressionism and the importance of Claude Monet in that movement, so it is a wonderful opportunity for them to see original work and not just reproductions.
“During the past 10 years, my fourth grade students have been lucky enough to be involved in the Arts in the Basic Curriculum Program at the museum. It involves four visits to the museum, projects and journaling that relate to the curriculum.
“We are so fortunate to be able to visit the Monet exhibit through special funding made possible through E. Des Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative,” continued Goedeker. “After the tour, we will explore the museum on our own and complete a mixed media scavenger hunt.”
Inspired by his gardens at Giverny in France, Money painted hundreds of water lilies. This exhibit brings together the right-hand panel from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, the left-hand panel from the Cleveland Museum of Art and the center panel from the Saint Louis Art Museum, where the exhibit will run through January 22, 2012. The last time the complete triptych was exhibited was in 1979.