Images & Texts

Press release

A successful conclusion to "Monet on the Normandy Coast": Over 250,000 visitors

An overwhelming public response with 252,148 visitors // "Monet on the Normandy Coast. The discovery of Étretat" one of the most successful exhibitions in the Städel's history

With over a quarter of a million visitors (252,148), the major highlight exhibition “Monet on the Normandy Coast. The Discovery of Étretat” came to a successful close yesterday. This makes the exhibition, following “Making van Gogh. A German Love Story” (2019/20), the most successful Städel exhibition of the past ten years and one of the five most-visited exhibitions in the history of the Städel Museum. With “Monet on the Normandy Coast”, open from19 March until 5 July, the Städel Museum explored the artistic discovery of Étretat. The former fishing village on the Normandy coast had a significant influence on modern painting: its impressive cliff landscape captivated numerous artists in the 19th century. Depictions of the coast by artists including Claude Monet, Gustave Courbet, Eugène Delacroix and Henri Matisse made this remote place famous beyond the borders of France. The exhibition brought together around 170 outstanding paintings, drawings, photographs and historical documents, including twenty-four works by Claude Monet alone, and highlighted the enduring fascination that Étretat continues to exert to this day. Due to high public demand, the exhibition was open daily from 23 June with extended opening hours until 9 pm.

“The exhibition ‘Monet on the Normandy Coast’ proved a real crowd-puller and was a resounding success throughout. We are delighted that, with more than 250,000 visitors, the exhibition will go down as one of the most successful in the history of the Städel Museum. My special thanks go to our visitors from near and far, as well as to all the generous patrons and supporters who made this project possible. The Städel Museum has once again demonstrated its ability to captivate audiences by offering diverse approaches to previously unexplored themes in art history. With our major autumn exhibition ‘Mary Magdalene. Sin. Pray. Love.’, we are continuing to examine extraordinary art-historical themes”, said Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum.

You can find the full press release here as a PDF.