JOHN R. STOMBERG, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director
Hood Quarterly, Summer 2025
Dartmouth has long promoted the Hood Museum as an open door to campus for communities near and far, encouraging all to come and enjoy the broad variety of art on view. Despite the wide array of amazing work we have shared over the years, however, this summer, for the first time and in honor of our 40th anniversary, we will exhibit a pair of paintings by the famous French Impressionist Claude Monet. It is a milestone moment for our exhibition program and for the museum. Monet sought nothing less than to expand the way people see through his art, and this museum has long aspired to do likewise through its exhibitions and teaching.
Monet altered the notion of art by emphasizing light and color as effects rather than facts. He looked closely but painted loosely. He allowed his understanding of sight to guide him and created images of the atmospherics, shapes, and hues that made their imprint on him. Deeply aware of the role that eyes play in shaping our sense of the world, he shared his way of seeing through his art. For Monet, Impressionism was an intuitive science of vision, and as such it offers us as much to learn as to see and enjoy.
Since 1985, when the Hood Museum first opened its doors, the dream of showing work by Monet has slipped farther and farther from our grasp. His work, and Impressionism in general, has come to exemplify the very idea of a "blockbuster" exhibition. Major museums around the world stake the success of a given season—both financial and reputational—on their ability to bring such a spectacle to their audiences. Few artists command Monet's hold on the affection of art lovers because his works are just that wonderful. He has become one of the very few artists whose shows reliably become major cultural events wherever they appear.
Having these two Monet paintings in the Upper Valley offers our campus and community a rare opportunity to view Impressionism in the backyard, so to speak. They will be on view for an extended period and, as always, the museum is free and open to all. In this way, we hope that many of the usual barriers to seeing Monet—travel, time, and cost—are dropped, making it easy and fun for our regional visitors to enjoy his work in person.