JULIET WAS HERE | French Impressionism at NGV

French Impressionism at NGV is more than a collection of paintings. It’s a full sensory setting — soaring ceilings, the texture of vintage carpets underfoot, light catching on ornate cornices, and walls painted in tones that echo the mood of the works they hold. I visited over the weekend and came away with a list of the pieces I’d happily claim for my own walls.

French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is on at the NGV until 5 October 2025.

The works I’d take home if I could:

  • Eugène Louis Boudin, Fashionable figures on the beach, 1865

  • Eugène Louis Boudin, Venice, Santa Maria della Salute from San Giorgio, 1895

  • Henri Fantin-Latour, Plate of peaches, 1862

  • Henri Fantin-Latour, Roses in a vase, 1872

  • Edgar Degas, Ballet dancer with arms crossed, c. 1872

  • Claude Monet, Camille Monet and a child in the artist’s garden in Argenteuil, 1875

  • Claude Monet, Water lilies, 1905

  • Claude Monet, Road at La Cavée, Pourville, 1882

  • Claude Monet, Seacoast at Trouville, 1881

I realised the works I loved most weren’t the grand, dramatic showpieces. They were the moments that asked me to step closer, a plate of peaches just set down, a dancer in quiet rehearsal, a garden in soft afternoon light, the sky over a fashionable beach. Each one holds a kind of suspended breath, lit gently, textured with air and time. They feel like the way I want to see the world, attentive, intimate, and quietly in love with the passing moment.

I left with my imagined collection in mind and the feeling that, for an afternoon, I’d lived inside those paintings.

juliet was here, CULTURAL NOTES, CULTURAL NOTE, Art & ExhibitionsJuliet SulejmaniFrench Impressionism, ngv, Melbourne art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, cultural notes, juliet was here, art exhibition, gallery visits, impressionist paintingComment