Spotlight on a unique collection
While artists were being rejected in the Salons of the time, Léon Monet, in order to support his brother and the artists of his generation, launched one of the greatest collections of modern art.
As time went by, Léon Monet brought together many paintings, drawings and prints by a select number of artists. Amongst them, his brother Claude Monet played an important part: Léon owned around twenty of his paintings and his first two sketchbooks from 1856!
The historical value of this collection is significant for the extent to which it draws together the early Impressionists. Art enthusiasts have the rare opportunity to enjoy the work of Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Auguste Renoir, alongside several artists of the Rouen School, such as Joseph Delattre, Georges Bradberry, Narcisse Guilbert, Charles Frechon or Marcel Delaunay.
Léon sought to promote these artists at a local level, in spite of indifference and rejection from the Establishment. In 1872, for example, he put four Impressionist paintings from his collection into the 23rd Municipal Exhibition in Rouen. Some years later, on March 24th 1875, the first big sale of Impressionist works opened at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. In the course of the sale Léon came just behind Durand-Ruel, acquiring at least five works, several of which were by his brother or by Renoir!
It is surely the unfailing support that he showed towards his brother, as well as to the Impressionists of the Rouen School, that gives this incomparable collection its sense of cohesion and singularity: by supporting Claude and his friends, Léon asserted his appreciation for avant-garde artists and for the Normandy landscapes of his childhood.
