#109 From the Water Lily Pond to the Lagoon, Monet's Venice Paintings in Context: A Conversation with Curator Lisa Small

Saturday, November 1st Live on Zoom

6pm Florence, 10am Los Angeles, 1pm New York

Claude Monet once claimed that Venice was “too beautiful to be painted,” a challenge he embraced by creating an extraordinary sequence of works depicting the Italian city. Monet and Venice at the Brooklyn Museum (October 11, 2025–February 1, 2026) is the first exhibition to focus on Monet’s luminous Venetian paintings—a radiant yet underexplored chapter in the artist’s late career—since their debut in 1912.  New York’s largest museum show dedicated to Monet in over 25 years, this exhibition features more than 100 artworks, books, and ephemera. Two masterpieces, the Brooklyn Museum’s own Palazzo Ducale and The Grand Canal, Venice from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, are presented alongside selections from throughout Monet’s career—including 19 of his Venetian paintings.

Our presenter, Lisa Small, has been a curator at the Brooklyn Museum since 2011, and was appointed Senior Curator of European Art in 2017. She has organized numerous permanent collection installations and special exhibitions, including Monet to Morisot: The Real and Imagined in European Art (2022–23); Rembrandt to Picasso: Five Centuries of European Works on Paper (2019); Rodin: The Body in Bronze (2017); and the touring exhibition French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850–1950 (2017–21, 2023–27).  She will explore a fascinating yet underexplored chapter in Monet's late career: his 1908 trip to Venice. Her presentation will assert and amplify this trip’s significance to reveal how the artist's evocative images of La Serenissima resonated within his life and oeuvre.

Monet and Venice will run from March 21 through July 26, 2026 at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, following its presentation in Brooklyn.

To RSVP: Paola50122@gmail.com

Minimum suggested donation: $28

This talk is free for Friends of Paola's Studiolo!

Look forward to seeing you on Zoom!