Sunday, October 18, 2026

Impressions of Light: Masterpieces from MuMa Le Havre and The Bowes Museum

MuMa – Le Havre and The Bowes Museum

26 September 2026 – 14 March 2027

A major international partnership with the Musée d’Art moderne André Malraux (MuMa), Le Havre, brings Impressionist masterpieces from France to The Bowes Museum in County Durham, with many works being shown in the UK for the first time.

Tracing the evolution of landscape painting from Pre-Impressionism to Post-Impressionism, Impressions of Light: Masterpieces from MuMa Le Havre and The Bowes Museum explores a period of extraordinary artistic change, when painters began to look at the world around them in new ways. Through light, colour and atmosphere, landscape became a space for experimentation, personal expression and new approaches to capturing the fleeting experience of a place.

Works by some of the most celebrated names in French art, including Claude Monet (1840–1926), Eugène Boudin (1824–1898), Gustave Courbet (1819–1877), Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), Jean-Francis Auburtin (1866–1930) and Raoul Dufy (1877–1953), reveal the artistic innovation and emotional depth that helped transform modern art.

Jean-Francis Auburtin, Varengeville, la cabane des douaniers, 1922, gouache sur papier, 32,2 x 51,5 cm. Le Havre, musée d’art moderne André Malraux, inv. 2016.5.1. Achat de la Ville avec l’aide du Fonds régional d’acquisition des musées (FRAM), 2016 © MuMa Le Havre/ Charles Maslard

These significant loans from MuMa are displayed alongside The Bowes Museum’s pioneering collection of Pre-Impressionist works, creating a unique opportunity to trace the changing approaches to landscape painting across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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Eugene Boudin ‘Beach Scene at Low Tide’

Presented in themed groupings that echo the coast, cliffs, moorland and dales surrounding The Bowes Museum, the exhibition draws connections between the landscapes of France and County Durham. From shifting skies and changing light to dramatic coastlines and open countryside, discover how generations of artists responded to the places around them and transformed those experiences through paint.

The Sea at Fécamp (Fécamp, bord de mer), painted by Claude Monet in 188

From Le Havre to Barnard Castle

The exhibition also reveals a fascinating connection between The Bowes Museum and the French art world from which Impressionism emerged.

The museum’s founders, Joséphine (1825–1874) and John Bowes (1811–1885), were deeply connected to France and, unusually for British collectors at the time, acquired works by living French artists. Joséphine was herself a painter and was influenced by the en plein air approach of Pre-Impressionist artists, who increasingly left the studio to work directly from the landscape.

During the nineteenth century, Le Havre’s prosperity as an international port helped foster an extraordinary artistic culture. Its distinctive coastline, changing weather and remarkable quality of light attracted artists who would play an important role in the development of Impressionism.

Joséphine and John travelled frequently to Le Havre, and their connection to the city can even be seen in the architecture of The Bowes Museum itself, whose striking design was inspired by Le Havre’s town hall.

More than 150 years later, Impressions of Light brings these connections together once again, placing works collected by Joséphine and John alongside masterpieces travelling from Le Havre to Barnard Castle.

Bringing together world-class loans from MuMa and The Bowes Museum’s own collection, Impressions of Light is a journey through artistic vision, cultural exchange and landscape’s enduring power to move and inspire.

Presented by The Bowes Museum and MuMa – Musée d’Art moderne André Malraux, Le Havre.

British Modernist artworks saved by Art Fund for South West museums

Art Fund has stepped in to save 22 artworks from the Dartington Hall Collection for the nation, providing an exceptional grant to fund a joint acquisition by The Box, Plymouth, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM), Exeter.

The collection of works by leading British Modernist artists has been acquired in its entirety through a private sale brokered by Phillips ahead of its Modern & Contemporary Art auctions during Frieze Week in London.

Christopher Wood, Breton Fisherwoman, 1930

Christopher Wood, Fish in a Basket, 1930

The collection comprises paintings, works on paper and ceramics by artists central to the history of 20th-century British art, including Bernard Leach (1887-1979), Ben Nicholson (1894-1982), Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981), Lucie Rie (1902-1995) and Christopher Wood (1901-1930).

Ben Nicholson Cumbrian Cottages oil on canvas 54.5 x 59.5 cm (21 1/2 x 23 3/8 in.) Painted circa 1928, in the United Kingdom.

Backed by contributions from individuals and trusts following an urgent fundraising campaign, Art Fund has provided a grant of £815,035 to fund 100% of the acquisition to ensure it will remain together for public display, allowing future generations to enjoy and engage with these important works.

A distinct history of a unique place

The works have previously been on public display together at Dartington Hall. They are closely associated with Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst and with the cultural history of Dartington, Devon.

Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst acquired Dartington in 1925 and developed the estate as an ambitious experiment in rural regeneration, progressive education and the arts. Dartington became a centre of cultural innovation, attracting artists, craftspeople, musicians, dancers, writers and thinkers from Britain, Europe, Asia and the United States.

The works in this collection together provide a distinct history of a unique place where artists lived, worked, taught, exhibited and exchanged ideas, and where works were made within an unusually fertile community of artistic and social experimentation.

The works will be shared across Devon rather than held in one place. The Box and RAMM will develop displays, interpretation, talks and research with Dartington and other Devon partners, so that the collection stays rooted in the place and cultural history it came from.

Both museums will offer learning, skills development and volunteering opportunities connected to the collection, and a jointly planned symposium will bring together experts on Modern British Art and studio ceramics. The works will also be available online through RAMM’s Collections Explorer and Art UK, so audiences in Devon and around the world can see them.

The sale benefits the Dartington Hall Trust, supporting the ongoing preservation of the Dartington Estate and safeguarding the extraordinary cultural legacy of its visionary founders, Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst, whose pioneering commitment to art, education and creativity helped shape British Modernism.

"These 22 works belong together"

Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said: "The Elmhirst Collection is an exceptional record of the artistic and cultural life of Dartington, and its influence on British Modernism. These 22 works belong together, and keeping them in public ownership in the South West will ensure that this important part of our cultural history can be shared with future generations. We’re delighted to provide the full funding needed for The Box and RAMM to acquire the collection for their public collections, and grateful to everyone who has worked at pace to make this possible."

Councillor Jemima Laing, Plymouth City Council's Cabinet Member for Culture, said: "This is a hugely exciting acquisition, not just for Plymouth and Devon, but for the nation.

“These artworks are part of an extraordinary story about creativity, innovation and social change that unfolded here in Devon and went on to influence people around the world. By securing this collection for public ownership, we have prevented an important piece of our shared cultural heritage from being lost.

“The collection includes works by some of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century and offers a fascinating insight into the vision of Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst, whose commitment to the arts helped make Dartington one of the most influential cultural centres in Britain.

“I'm delighted that, through partnership working and the support of Art Fund, these nationally significant works will now remain accessible to everyone. They will inspire future generations, support learning and research, and help us tell important stories about Plymouth, Devon and Britain's artistic heritage."

Councillor Lucy Findlay MBE, Exeter City Council Lead for Culture and City Centre, said: "This is an exceptional collection that speaks directly to the cultural and artistic history of Devon. The Elmhirsts were visionary patrons whose support enabled artists, makers and thinkers to flourish, and these works reflect the rich creative networks that developed around Dartington.

"Securing the collection through a partnership with The Box Plymouth demonstrates what can be achieved when organisations work together to safeguard nationally important heritage. We look forward to sharing the collection with audiences and exploring the many opportunities it offers for exhibitions, learning, research and public engagement."

The partnership acquisition builds on a growing national trend of museums and galleries working together to secure important works of art for public benefit, ensuring collections remain accessible while sharing expertise, resources and audiences.

The artworks will now be cared for by The Box and RAMM and, over time, displayed through exhibitions and engagement programmes that explore Dartington's lasting impact on culture, creativity and society.

Olivia Thornton, Deputy Chairwoman and Head of Modern & Contemporary Art, Europe, Phillips, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have worked closely with these public institutions to secure the future of these remarkable works. Keeping the group together in public ownership is a wonderful outcome, honouring the vision of Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst and ensuring that their legacy continues to inspire future generations. This private sale represents the best possible result for all involved: benefiting the Dartington Hall Trust, supporting the preservation of the Estate, and ensuring that the public can continue to enjoy this exceptional group of British Modernist works.”

A distinct history of a unique place

The works have previously been on public display together at Dartington Hall. They are closely associated with Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst and with the cultural history of Dartington, Devon.

"These 22 works belong together"

Councillor Jemima Laing, Plymouth City Council's Cabinet Member for Culture, said: "This is a hugely exciting acquisition, not just for Plymouth and Devon, but for the nation.

Olivia Thornton, Deputy Chairwoman and Head of Modern & Contemporary Art, Europe, Phillips, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have worked closely with these public institutions to secure the future of these remarkable works. Keeping the group together in public ownership is a wonderful outcome, honouring the vision of Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst and ensuring that their legacy continues to inspire future generations. This private sale represents the best possible result for all involved: benefiting the Dartington Hall Trust, supporting the preservation of the Estate, and ensuring that the public can continue to enjoy this exceptional group of British Modernist works.”

A distinct history of a unique place

The works have previously been on public display together at Dartington Hall. They are closely associated with Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst and with the cultural history of Dartington, Devon.

"These 22 works belong together"

Councillor Jemima Laing, Plymouth City Council's Cabinet Member for Culture, said: "This is a hugely exciting acquisition, not just for Plymouth and Devon, but for the nation.

Olivia Thornton, Deputy Chairwoman and Head of Modern & Contemporary Art, Europe, Phillips, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have worked closely with these public institutions to secure the future of these remarkable works. Keeping the group together in public ownership is a wonderful outcome, honouring the vision of Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst and ensuring that their legacy continues to inspire future generations. This private sale represents the best possible result for all involved: benefiting the Dartington Hall Trust, supporting the preservation of the Estate, and ensuring that the public can continue to enjoy this exceptional group of British Modernist works.”

A distinct history of a unique place

The works have previously been on public display together at Dartington Hall. They are closely associated with Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst and with the cultural history of Dartington, Devon.

"These 22 works belong together"

Councillor Jemima Laing, Plymouth City Council's Cabinet Member for Culture, said: "This is a hugely exciting acquisition, not just for Plymouth and Devon, but for the nation.

Olivia Thornton, Deputy Chairwoman and Head of Modern & Contemporary Art, Europe, Phillips, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have worked closely with these public institutions to secure the future of these remarkable works. Keeping the group together in public ownership is a wonderful outcome, honouring the vision of Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst and ensuring that their legacy continues to inspire future generations. This private sale represents the best possible result for all involved: benefiting the Dartington Hall Trust, supporting the preservation of the Estate, and ensuring that the public can continue to enjoy this exceptional group of British Modernist works.

Full List of Works:

Ben Nicholson (1894–1982), Cumbrian Cottages, c.1928, oil on canvas, 54.5 × 59.5 cm
Winifred Nicholson (1893–1981), A Nursery Bunch, c.1927, oil on board, 37.5 × 38.8 cm
Winifred Nicholson (1893–1981), Flowers from Malmaison, c.1930, oil on canvas, 50 × 40 cm
Christopher Wood (1901–1930), Breton Fisherwoman, 1930, oil on board, 36 × 71 cm
Christopher Wood (1901–1930), Fish in a Basket, 1930, oil on board, 38.5 × 49.5 cm
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), Portrait of Christopher Wood, 1925, pencil on paper, 40.5 × 27.5 cm
Cecil Collins (1908–1989), Dartington Landscape with the artist, 1938, oil and sand on canvas, 45 × 61 cm
Cecil Collins (1908–1989), Sleeping Figure, 1942, pen, ink and wash on paper, 38.5 × 26 cm
David Jones (1895–1974), In the park, c.1930s, pencil and watercolour on paper, 48.5 × 61 cm
Frances Hodgkins (1869–1947), Church at San Jose, 1933, watercolour on paper, 36.2 × 47 cm
John Piper (1903–1992), Dartington Hall, c.1944, pen, ink and watercolour on paper, 39.5 × 54.3 cm
Edward Bawden (1903–1989), Dartington Hall, The Old Church II, c.1970s, pen, ink and watercolour on paper, 49.5 × 64 cm
Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), Spiritual Portrait of Kay Starr, 1945, coloured pencil on paper, 37.2 × 27 cm
Mark Tobey (1890–1976), Multiple Mansions, 1957, gouache on paper, 42 × 34 cm
Mark Tobey (1890–1976), Composition, 1958, gouache on paper, 23 × 20.5 cm
Mark Tobey (1890–1976), Footballers, 1929, watercolour on paper, 45.9 × 59 cm
Lucie Rie (1902–1995), Stoneware bowl, c.1962, stoneware with manganese speckle glaze, 15 × 33.5 × 15 cm
Bernard Leach (1887–1979), Faceted vase, c.1960s, stoneware with iron glaze, 31 cm high
Shoji Hamada (1894–1978), Flattened vase, c.1950s, stoneware with iron and wood ash glazes and resist motifs, 19 cm high
William Staite Murray (1881–1962), Vase, c.1930, stoneware with glaze, 27 cm high
Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie (1895–1985), Vase, c.1940s, stoneware with wood ash glazes, 12 cm high
Norah Braden (1895–1985), Bowl, c.1932, stoneware with wood ash glaze and brushed designs, 12.5 cm high

Sotheby's La Collection Schlumberger. Le Temps retrouvé 22 October 2026

The quality of a collection lies first and foremost in its works. But it becomes even more beautiful when a certain mystery surrounds that collection, and its sale lifts the veil on masterpieces never before shown to the public. This is one of the many appeals of the Schlumberger Collection and perhaps its very first.

The Schlumberger family's immense success began with two men, brothers Marcel and Conrad, coming from Alsace, who in 1926, the year Claude Monet died, founded the first company of what would become the Schlumberger group (SLB), now based in Houston.

But the Schlumberger collection is the story of two women: Jeanne Schlumberger (1889–1983), the collector, and Katia Granoff, the Parisian dealer who introduced the world to Monet's late-period works and who accompanied her client and friend through most of her acquisitions.

Born the same year as the inauguration Eiffel Tower, Jeanne married Marcel Schlumberger in 1909. Her brother-in-law was Jean Schlumberger, who helped found the NRF (Nouvelle Revue Française) and would go on to publish In Search of Lost Time.

Jeanne was a brilliant woman – a daughter of an engineer, independent, fond of driving fast cars between Paris and Normandy. She was one of the first French women to obtain a driver's license. In 1964, at age 75, she took all her grandchildren to see the first concert of the Beatles in France. She avoided Parisian society life and any publicity around her person her whole life, preferring instead to oversee the properties she owned or patronized, such as the Château de Crèvecœur, intended to become the Schlumberger Museum Foundation, or her manor in Honfleur. Very few photographs of her are known to exist.

Claude Monet, *Saule pleureur or L'Arbre de feu*, *circa* 1918-19.. Estimate €9,000,000–12,000,000.

Her meeting in the 1950-s with another powerful woman, the dealer Katia Granoff, revealed Jeanne's extraordinarily visionary eye and this is the other supreme quality of this remarkable collection: Jeanne Schlumberger acquired Monets from the final period (post-1914), such as Irisand Saule pleureur, long before anyone else, at a time when the master of Giverny's last monumental compositions were still largely misunderstood or even rejected - both by public institutions and by the art-market as well, dealers and private collectors. Until 1970, when Michel Monet's bequest was inaugurated at the Musée Marmottan, there were only three places in Paris and in all of Europe that held major works from Monet's final period (the series of Les Nymphéas, Iris, Le pont japonais, Saule pleureur): the often-empty rooms of the Musée de l’Orangerie, Galerie Katia Granoff, and the Schlumberger family's townhouse on Rue Las Cases.

Though Jeanne Schlumberger was an active and generous patron throughout her life, she never lent her paintings to exhibitions. Once hung on the walls of Rue Las Cases, the works never left. As a result, they were handled very little and preserved in perfect condition. Unvarnished, unlined, untouched: Iris and Saules remain today exactly as Monet painted them. Faced with canvases so rich in material - "the substance of dreams," as the painter himself called it - where the color is sometimes left unmixed, the sight of the paint surface offers an experience of joy, as moving as it is grand. Gazing at a late Monet that Katia Granoff had sold to MoMA, Mark Rothko would write that looking at the color makes you become that color.

While Jeanne Schlumberger preferred the late Monet to the early Monet, she also had a particular love for 19th-century French painting: Delacroix, Daumier, Courbet, and the young Cézanne decorating the family villa in the manner of the old masters. And above all, Gustave Moreau, the hallucinatory Symbolist: Rêve d'Orient, one of the masterpieces of the Schlumberger Collection, depicts a female figure descending from the sky on a dragon at night, to lull humans to sleep and feed on their dreams and on magnificently colored flowers

To paint the dream by painting flowers. It always comes back to Monet. All roads lead to Monet. The one taken by the Schlumberger Collection has now been found again.

A monumental Monet reveals the radical modernity of his late work and the foresight of two women who championed it.

In the 1950s, when Claude Monet’s late canvases were still dismissed as the faltering efforts of an artist who had been losing his sight, two women saw in them the future of painting. Katia Granoff, a Russian-born dealer who opened a Paris gallery in 1926, had made her name promoting artists including Chaïm Soutine and Pierre Bonnard. Jeanne Schlumberger, an independent-minded patron who shunned Parisian society, was the widow of Marcel Schlumberger, a pioneer of modern oil exploration. She was assembling an intensely personal collection in the family’s townhouse on rue Las-Cases. Where critics saw decline, Granoff and Schlumberger recognized a vision that anticipated some of the defining developments of 20th-century art.

Today, Monet hardly seems like an artist in need of champions. Yet three decades after his death in 1926, his reputation remained firmly rooted in the 19th century. Celebrated as the great hero of impressionism, he had spent the 1910s and 1920s at Giverny producing ever larger canvases in which the natural world edged toward abstraction.

Few paintings better demonstrate the extraordinary daring of Monet’s imagination than “Iris,” created around 1924–25. Nearly six feet across, it is the largest of three horizontal-format iris compositions he made in the 1920s, and the only one still in private hands. Long, dark green leaves surge upward from the bank, punctuated by touches of violet and yellow. To the left, individual blooms can still be identified; farther across the surface, contours dissolve into vigorous strokes of pigment. There is no horizon to steady the eye. Behind the flowers stretches an expanse of blue that could almost be open sky.

Claude Monet, “Iris,” circa 1924-25. €22,000,000-€30,000,000, “The Schlumberger Collection,” October 22, Sotheby’s Paris.

But the blue is the sky reflected in water. For Monet, this was an old fascination: from “Impression, Sunrise” (1872), now at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, to the monumental “Nymphéas” (1914–26) at the Musée de l’Orangerie, he returned repeatedly to the unstable meeting of light, water and their reflections. In “Iris,” the flowers remain recognizable, while the space around them refuses to resolve into bank, pond or sky.

Although cataracts had seriously affected Monet’s vision by the time he created “Iris,” he was pursuing something beyond the fleeting impression: an almost timeless experience of the garden, in which scale and color could envelop the viewer. Here I see a kinship with the ambitions of abstract expressionists Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, who would likewise aspire to contain the cosmos within a single canvas.

So convinced was Granoff that she staked her own fortune on Monet’s neglected canvases. In 1950, she met Michel Monet, the artist’s son, who had inherited the canvases at Giverny. Six years later, he sold her a substantial group. Granoff mortgaged her assets and secured a loan from Schlumberger, who in turn had privileged access to the paintings. Jeanne chose “Iris.”

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, American museums and artists were beginning to recognize this other Monet. In 1955, Alfred H. Barr Jr., founding director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, purchased a monumental “Nymphéas” from the artist’s son, the first such panel to enter an American museum. Displayed prominently at MoMA, its loose, allover handling resonated with contemporary abstraction. Sam Francis, a California-born painter who settled in Paris in 1950, also visited Granoff’s gallery to study Monet’s late canvases. His vast, gestural paintings, suggestive of natural forms, exemplified the tendency known as “abstract impressionism.”

Among the works offered in our landmark Schlumberger Collection auction are two late Monets, “Iris” and “Saule pleureur” (circa 1918-19), alongside works by Cézanne, Gustave Moreau and Camille Claudel. Jeanne preferred to live with her collection rather than lend it for exhibitions. “Iris” remained on the walls of rue Las-Cases for decades, rarely moved or handled. Its canvas is still unlined, its surface unvarnished, with colors in places almost unmixed. Up close, we encounter the extraordinary freedom of Monet’s brushwork; step back, and the irises, water and reflected sky come into focus. For me, the great achievement of “Iris” is how far Monet takes painting without ever leaving his garden at Giverny.

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