Voila! Hong Kong’s first-ever Monet exhibition debuts, draws over 100 visitors as doors open
Heritage Museum showing 17 works by renowned French impressionist
More than 100 people including schoolchildren queued up Wednesday to see masterpieces by French impressionist Claude Monet as they were unveiled in a landmark exhibition for Hong Kong.
Among the highlights are The Break-Up of the Ice at Vétheuil, facing Lavacourt, Water Lilies and Effect of Spring, Giverny.
Denis Law, 40, was among the first to arrive at the museum before it opened at 10am to buy a ticket to view the exhibition.
“I had seen Monet’s paintings in books and had always wanted to see the real ones,” he said of the works by the Paris-born artist who died in Giverny in 1926.
“I chose to come today because I’m afraid there’ll be too many people on weekends.”
Housewife Gao Yang, 39, brought along her son on Wednesday morning to see the works before sending him to school in the afternoon.
“I wanted to have a look at the paintings myself,” she said. “I told my son a little bit about the exhibition.”
Annie Chan On-yi, a teacher, brought along 100 primary six students from Tong Mei Road Government Primary School in Kowloon.
“It’s very rare that students get to see the actual work. They only see them usually in PowerPoints,” she said. “But it’s true not all the students were very interested and some asked why we were visiting the museum as some had already visited it a few times.”
However, Oscar Cheung Xin, a student at the school, said he wanted to “spend the whole day” there.
The exhibition is set to run from Wednesday to July 11.
Tickets on Wednesdays will sell for HK$10 per person and for HK$20 other days of the week. The museum is closed on Tuesdays.
