EDITORS: Prints or slides of “La Debacle” available on request.

ANN ARBOR—It was cold that winter; so cold that the River Seine froze solid. His wife had died. Creditors were threatening. The critics were not favorable to his work. Depression gripped painter Claude Monet. Then in early January 1880, temperatures climbed and partial thawing and melting snow from the surrounding hills brought flooding and devastation along the River. And the whole scene brought new inspiration to Monet who produced a series of works documenting the event, including his “La Debacle,” now in the University of Michigan’s permanent collection. This and 11 other paintings from Monet’s winter at Vetheuil have been gathered together for the first time in an exhibit opening Jan. 25 at the U-M’s Museum of Art. Upon closing in Ann Arbor March 15, the exhibition will travel to Dallas and Minneapolis. “Monet at Vetheuil: The Turning Point” brings together Monet works from Switzerland, New Zealand, Spain, France, Canada, and Texas. The collection, all oil on canvas and not seen together since they left the artist’s Vetheuil studio, includes “Camille Monet sur son lit de mort” (Camille Monet on her death bed).

Just locating the works in the series was a monumental task undertaken by Carole McNamara, interim director and collections manager at the Museum, and Annette Dixon, curator of Western art at the Museum. The duo began by consulting a 1974 catalog which led them off course a couple of times. Some of the paintings the curators were looking for were in private collections, others in museums, some had been sold or moved from where the catalog indicated they could be found. A friend of U-M’s Museum just happened to see one of the series in Dunedin, New Zealand, recognized it as similar to the Monet holding in Ann Arbor and notified the Museum.

Once located and the arrangements made for borrowing the work, a person from the lending institution accompanies the art to its destination. “That’s not really cost effective,” says Dixon, “especially for the piece from New Zealand, but it is a stupendous painting, recently cleaned and restored.” It is the organizing institution who pays the travel and transportation expenses. “That,” says Dixon, “is an enormously expensive undertaking.”

With “Monet at Vetheuil: The Turning Point” opening during Michigan’s coldest season, Dixon was prompted to comment, “We, too, may have a freeze of the Huron River.”

U-M’s Museum of Art is located at 525 S. State Street, and is open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., and Sunday, 12-5 p.m. Admission to the Museum is free. Tickets for the Monet exhibit are $6 for the public; $3 for U-M staff, faculty and all senior citizens, and is free to Museum of Art Friends, U-M students, and children under 12. Tickets are available through TicketsPlus at 1-800-585-3737. Travel information is available through Landmark Travel at 1-800-432-8636.

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