Impressions of Light: Masterpieces from MuMa Le Havre and The Bowes Museum – County Durham
The Bowes Museum brings Impressionist masterpieces from France in a major international partnership with the Musée d’Art moderne André Malraux, Le Havre, with many works shown in the UK for the first time.
Tracing landscape painting from Pre-Impressionism to Post-Impressionism, the exhibition explores how artists began using light, colour and atmosphere to experiment and capture the fleeting experience of a place. Works by Claude Monet, Eugène Boudin, Gustave Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Jean-Francis Auburtin and Raoul Dufy sit alongside The Bowes Museum’s own pioneering Pre-Impressionist collection, presented in themed groupings echoing the coast, cliffs, moorland and dales surrounding the museum.
The exhibition also traces a personal connection: museum founders Joséphine and John Bowes travelled frequently to Le Havre, whose town hall inspired the building’s own striking design.
