A visitor explores the exhibition Photo: Courtesy of Meet You Museum

The Meet the Impressionists: Monet, Renoir and Normandy Masters Exhibition opened at the MeetYou Museum in Beijing. The exhibition showcases 54 paintings by 34 artists, including Monet, Delacroix, Renoir, Courbet, Corot and others, leading visitors through the golden age of 19th century Western paintings.

The exhibition is divided into five sections, presenting the characteristics of artists who left their studios, immersed themselves in life, and put their own feelings first in the early 19th century.

The exhibition highlights the oil paintings of Monet's Storm at Saint-André and Cliff, the most popular Impressionist painter Renoir's Sunset, View of Guernsey Island and other pieces by 34 masters.

In the 19th century's Paris, art schools influenced and borrowed from each other. The Barbizon School evolved from the classical academy, and became a beacon of Impressionism as its artists expressed their feelings toward natural scenery. 

The exhibition uses a combination of paintings, venue layout and music to present the development of Western art from Romanticism to Impressionism.

The curator of the exhibition, Alain Tapié, the founding president of the Normandy Painting Association, introduced that Impressionism has many themes related to water, and visitors will be able to feel the difference of colors and light. 

"Normandy has the most varied weather in France, the highest humidity, and therefore became the cradle of Impressionist landscape painting. When we see this exhibition, everyone will feel that art and exhibitions have no borders, no distinction between Chinese and French, but a common feeling of beauty."

The exhibition is set to run until February 25, 2024.