Three U.S. museums to host Monet exhibition in 2006

Wednesday, December 14th 2005, 12:08 pm

By: News On 6

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The North Carolina Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and the Cleveland Museum of Art will be the only American museums to host an exhibition of paintings by Claude Monet that focuses on his works from Normandy, France.

``Monet in Normandy'' is billed as the first show to focus on Monet's paintings of Normandy.

The show ``will be one of the biggest exhibitions we've ever done,'' Larry Wheeler, director of the North Carolina museum, said. ``It's a powerful and serious exhibition.''

Museum officials hope it will be as popular as the ``Matisse, Picasso and the School of Paris'' exhibition that concluded in January after attracting almost 124,000 visitors.

The show includes some of Monet's iconic works, including paintings of water lilies, haystacks and the Rouen Cathedral, Wheeler said. The approximately 45 works come from public and private collections from all over the world, including the United States, Japan and France.

``Monet in Normandy'' opens in San Francisco in June, then arrives in Raleigh in mid-October. It moves to Cleveland in February 2007.