Geelong Gallery will welcome a Claude Monet art piece into its display, thanks to a long-term loan from the National Gallery of Australia.
The French impressionist landscape painter’s Meules, milieu du jour 1890 (also known as Haystacks, midday 1890) will be featured at the gallery from Friday 21 November.
Geelong Gallery director and chief executive Humphrey Clegg said impressionism played a big role in the gallery’s history and that he was looking forward to displaying the extraordinary piece.
“As we celebrate our 130th anniversary in 2026, we are delighted to be able to loan Claude Monet’s famous Meules, milieu du jour 1890,” he said.
“(It will help) to inspire the Geelong community in the same way the French Impressionists inspired their Australian counterparts more than a century ago.”
Monet’s Haystacks, midday 1890 aligned with Geelong Gallery’s own story of its first art piece purchase of A bush burial (1890) from artist Frederick McCubbin.
Mr Clegg said McCubbin’s work remained a cornerstone of the gallery’s collection and thanked the National Gallery’s Sharing the National Collection initiative for the two-year loan of Monet’s piece.
“Our community founded the gallery’s collection through the purchase of the much-loved and now nationally significant Australian Impressionist painting,” he said.
Monet started his celebrated Haystacks series in 1890 where he painted the haystacks near his home in France at least 25 times, focusing on the changing effects of light during different times across the year.
