Monet, Manet, Renoir: The Exhibition Bringing the World’s Greatest Impressionists to Southeast Asia

The little red dot of Singapore has pulled off something spectacular for Southeast Asia’s art scene. Into the Modern: Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, now open at National Gallery Singapore, is the largest exhibition of French Impressionist art ever staged in the region.

Featuring over a hundred works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and their contemporaries, Into the Modern brings to SEA an extraordinary loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with many pieces appearing in Asia for the very first time. 

Into the Modern: Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston at National Gallery Singapore. Photo by Nurdina Aliyah.

If you’re an art lover, cultural fiend, or someone who’s curious about the Impressionist paintings seen in movies books, this is the exhibition to see. And if you’ve ever wondered why Impressionism mattered in the first place, this exhibition answers that without posing a lecture.

Impressionism emerged in late 19th-century France at a time of deep transition. Cities expanded, industries grew, and daily life changed in pace and form - and these artists captured modern life as it shifted by painting the world around them. 

Into the Modern reframes this for today’s world, situating its themes within contemporary conversations on gender, the environment, and the human experience. For those in SEA (or if you’re swinging by in the next few months), this is an opportunity to encounter works that have shaped global art history such as Renoir’s Dance at Bougival and Monet’s The Water Lily Pond.

The exhibition is structured thematically rather than chronologically, allowing ideas to unfold as visitors move through the seven galleries. The opening section “Seeking the Open Air” sets the tone with Monet’s Meadow at Giverny front and centre - a painting without a clear focal point, offering instead a field of colour and atmosphere. 

Left: Entrance to the Village of Osny, Paul Gauguin.

Right: Path through the Forest near Fontainebleau, Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña.

Photos by Nurdina Aliyah.

It feels surreal seeing the works that came to life en plain air (French for “in the open air”), and it’s easy to drift and find yourselves enraptured by the forests and farmlands outside of Paris. Dream-soft landscapes line the walls, such as Diaz’s rich, warm Path through the Forest near Fontainebleau (a SEA debut), creating a space that feels suspended in time. 

Motifs integral to Impressionism are clearly seen, such as Monet’s red-orange dabs suggestive of poppies, and visitors can read up on how each artist has chosen to bring their painting to life.

Corot’s use of “souvenir” (French for “memory”) in his titles is a particularly lovely touch -  indicating that the artworks are not to be read as direct transcriptions of observed nature, preserving each viewer’s artistic interpretation of the landscape.

As the exhibition continues, water becomes a recurring presence - rivers, ports, coastlines - reflecting the significance of both leisure and labour. Sisley represents the integration of technology with the rural landscape here, such as by depicting a modern pumping station in Waterworks at Marly, which sits against a backdrop of the rustling foliage.

Left: Seacoast at Trouville, Claude Monet. Photo by Nurdina Aliyah.

Right: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai. Photo courtesy of theartstory.org.

We also see the surfacing of a global exchange of ideas underway. Monet’s Snow at Argenteuil and Seacoast at Trouville echo the influence of Japanese woodblock prints, particularly in their compositional techniques to emphasise the two-dimensional surface of the canvas.

Scattered throughout the galleries are multimedia stations for the visitors to engage with. Short films are screening, such as Impressionist Legacies: Plen Air Painting, which presents a case study on the beginnings of plein air painting in Vietnam and traces how the Impressionism movement broke out amongst the French colonies in Indochina. A small drawing area by a bay window also invites visitors to sketch the nearby field and Singapore’s river landscape, reminiscent of the Impressionists’ outdoor practices themselves.

As Daubigny once reflected, it is the “memory [of nature], or the sight of it, that we sometimes become crazy and it’s then that we make good paintings.” In a world moving quickly, Into the Modern offers its visitors a rare chance to simply pause and look.

Planning your visit

Dates: 14 November 2025 - 1 March 2026

Note: Weekend entry will be on a first come, first served basis, with timed admission slots. Entry slots are available every 30 minutes from 10am to 6pm. 

Location: National Gallery Singapore, City Hall Wing, Level 3, Singtel Special Exhibition Galleries 1-3

Limited-time offer: 25% off tickets until 1 February 2026 (discount applied automatically at checkout)

Tickets can be booked here.