The de Young museum in San Francisco will host a major exhibition, “Monet and Venice,” from March 21 to July 26, 2026. This event marks the first time in over a century that Claude Monet’s Venetian paintings will be shown together since their original debut in Paris.
Co-organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Brooklyn Museum, the exhibition brings together more than 20 of Monet’s 37 Venice canvases. These works will be displayed alongside select pieces from other periods of Monet’s career, including his well-known Water Lilies series. Paintings on loan come from institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and private collections.
The show also features works by artists who depicted Venice before or during Monet’s time—Canaletto, John Singer Sargent, J.M.W. Turner, and James McNeill Whistler—highlighting Venice’s ongoing appeal for artists and its influence on view painting traditions.
Monet visited Venice only once in October 1908 at age 68 with his wife Alice. This trip was his last significant journey abroad and marked his final engagement with architectural subjects. During this period he painted while surrounded by water and light—often working directly from a gondola—which echoed techniques he used earlier along the Seine.
The exhibition is structured both chronologically and thematically: it explores Monet’s artistic development as well as how other artists represented Venice across centuries. Visitors can trace Monet’s focus on water and reflections through more than a dozen works created along the Seine, Normandy Coast, London, and Giverny.
A highlight unique to the San Francisco presentation is the reunion of all four Venetian paintings once owned by Gwendolyn and Margaret Davies. The sisters’ Impressionist collection was left to Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales; one piece eventually came to San Francisco as a gift from Osgood Hooker to the Fine Arts Museums. Another notable feature is a comparison between two versions of Grand Canal, Venice—from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and San Francisco’s own collection—allowing viewers to observe differences in Monet’s approach.
Lisa Small (Brooklyn Museum) and Melissa E. Buron (Victoria and Albert Museum) curated the exhibition.
Support for “Monet and Venice” comes from presenting sponsors John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn; Diane B. Wilsey; Barbara A. Wolfe; major supporters including Dagmar Dolby; Henderson Family Foundation; Herbst Foundation Inc.; Wollenberg Foundation; significant support from Cheryl Frank & Michael Linn among others; plus additional contributors such as Gwynn & Mitchel August.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco comprise both the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park—originating from an 1894 exposition—and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The institution holds diverse collections ranging from American art to international modern works.
The museums acknowledge their location on land originally inhabited by Indigenous peoples including Ramaytush Ohlone as well as Miwok, Yokuts, Patwin communities: “We acknowledge, recognize, and honor the Indigenous ancestors, elders, and descendants whose nations and communities have lived in the Bay Area over many generations and continue to do so today.”
