Impressionists make their mark at The Bowes Museum

We’ve been waiting 22 years to see it – but Monet’s Fecamp, Seaside, is finally on display at The Bowes Museum.

Michaël Debris, assistant curator at MuMa in Le Havre, said: “The Monet is returning to Britain 22 years after The Bowes Museum first requested the loan of this painting for an exhibition on landscape painters in Normandy.

“As the painting was involved in another project at the time, it could not be loaned then.

“But now it has finally happened!”

And happened in some style.

The latest Bowes show, Impressions of Light, represents the biggest collection of art from MuMa to come to this country.

Usually the museum, whose impressionist collection is rated second only to the world-famous Musee d’Orsay in Paris, lends a couple of canvases at a time.

Barnard Castle is getting about 40 of them until March 14.

They share the walls with selected works from the Bowes collection – including a rare image of the old Town Hall in Le Havre, believed to have inspired the design of The Bowes Museum itself.

Together, the artworks tell a story that links Josephine Bowes as a collector with the artistic revolution of the late 19th century.

And the show is full of unexpected connections between Normandy and County Durham.

Rural landscapes echo the Durham Dales, while among the scenes from Le Havre’s docks, a dark workplace where men sort coal feels like a prototype of some of Norman Cornish’s work.

And the coal itself was imported from the North-east coalfields, including the mines from which the Bowes family amassed its fortune, enabling John and Josephine to establish their museum.

“Everything we show has to have some grounding in who we are and why it makes sense here in County Durham,” said Vicky Sturrs, director of programmes and collections at The Bowes Museum.

“We know we have Cornish, so here we have works that show the end point of that journey for our coal.

“And we know that our museum was built on the backs of that industry.

“It’s a full circle in terms of the exhibition we have and the reason our founders were able to build this in the first place.”

The latest exhibition transforms the gallery from its colourful, high fashion incarnation for the recent Vivienne Westwood show into something more akin to a traditional white cube gallery.

And that’s part of the museum’s on-going effort to tap into the widest possible audiences – locally and beyond.

“We’re trying to make sure there’s variety in the exhibition programme,” Vicky added.

“This show is maybe for a different audience than Rebel – Storyteller – Visionary.

“Then we move on to a show exploring our impact on nature, then into Bowie next autumn.

“They are four very different presentations and four different things that talk about why we display this at The Bowes.”

• Impressions of Light: Masterpieces from MuMa Le Havre and The Bowes Museum runs until March 14, 2027. Year-round admission is £25, day tickets are £20. Under 18s, full-time students and carers free.