To encourage families to visit, we designed a Family Activity Room within the exhibition -building a 3D version of Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles. With the generous support of the Yulgilbar Foundation, the room was visited by over 60,000 visitors during the exhibition
4 December 2009 – 18 April 2010
National Gallery of Australia
Organised in partnership with the Musée d’Orsay, with thanks for their exceptional loans
Masterpieces from Paris featured 112 works, including many of Musée d’Orsay’s best-known works of modern art. The exhibition examined the Post-Impressionism movement – beginning with the Impressionists’, Salon painting and cross-influences between artists, and showed the flowering of the modern movement throughout Europe.
It included seven works by Van Gogh including Bedroom at Arles 1889 and Stary night 1888, eight works by Cézanne including Mount Saint-Victoire c.1890, Gauguin’s Tahitian women 1891, eleven works by Seurat and five paintings by Monet - masterpieces that almost never leave the Musée d’Orsay, even singly, and works that had never been loaned together, in such numbers.
Masterpieces from Paris closed after 122 days with a total attendance of 478,044 visitors
Even today, it is still the highest attended visual art exhibition ever held in Australia
With over 400,000 visitors travelling from the rest of the country to see the exhibition in Canberra, it was reported to be the first exhibition held in a single venue to receive a truly national audience.
Visitors purchased 55,000 copies of the exhibition catalogue and nearly a quarter of million postcards, posters, and prints.
The Australian National University visitation report estimated that the ACT economy benefited through expenditure of over $94 million from visitors to the exhibition.
To encourage families to visit, the Family Activity Room - a 3D version of Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles - was built in the exhibition. Generously supported by the Yulgilbar Foundation, it was enjoyed by over 60,000 visitors
