Impressionists in Normandy: the fascination of the Impressionist movement at the Museum of the Innocents

What a wonder-filled start to the year for art and culture lovers who find themselves spending a few days in our city. Until May 4, in fact, at the Museo degli Innocenti (Click here to visit the Museum's page) you will be able to visit Impressionists in Normandy, which, with a body of more than 70 works from the immense holdings of the Peindre en Normandie Collection, loans from the Musée d'art moderne in Le Havre and, of course, private collections, represents an exciting journey to the center of a land, which is emblem and color, and of a generous and first-rate artistic movement-formally born precisely 150 years ago with an exhibition in Paris.

Normandy on canvases: dream and representation

Let's focus, then, on the geographical element: the landscapes of Normandy, its skies, blurred colors, lush green valleys become in this exhibition-which contains works of staggering beauty such as  Delacroix's Falesie a Dieppe (1834), Monet's Fécamp (1881), and Renoir's Sunset, View i Guernesey (1893)-the fertile ground for exchange and dialogue among artists who drew on natural elements to recreate a hymn to life and its power.

The artists' brushstrokes, inspired by Normandy's dense hints of shapes, geometries and colors, are indeed a vigorous celebration of creativity as a call to action, a manifestation of gesture and its flow.

Thanks precisely to these portraits that have become iconic, Normandy has retained an exotic charm over time, as a place that attracts and captivates, that regenerates and amazes.

A Day...at the Museum:

If you are not familiar with the Museo degli Innocenti, the Impressionists in Normandy exhibition may be the perfect opportunity to catch up on one of our city's most extraordinary gems. The Museum, which offers three thematic tour routes:

• History

• Architecture

• Art

Has its roots in a very long history that starts with the Ospedale degli Innocenti (or just spedale as it was properly called), the design of whose building was entrusted to Brunelleschi in 1419. So we are talking about a place that has a tradition and significance of extreme importance for the city of Florence, protected by the loggia of Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, among perfect geometries and plays of light.

A museum structure further enriched by the Verone Café (also accessible to those without a Museum ticket, open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.), which is one of the best views of Florence, inside a 15th-century loggia, where you can stop and enjoy a drink while losing yourself in the enchantment of its terrace and what will be revealed from it.

Going to museums: the best solution

Discovering Florence through its museums is one of the most interesting ways to learn more about the city. In fact, it is often thought that by walking through monuments and marked streets, one can see everything or at least get an overall idea of the place visited.

But knowing it through the history of its buildings is something else: reconnecting dates, names, architecture and why can give a broader and more complete perspective. The Museum of the Innocents shows us this and the Impressionist painters show us this with the landscapes of Normandy.

Opening hours

Daily from 9:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

(ticket office closes one hour earlier)

Special openings

until 9 p.m.

(ticket office closes one hour earlier)

Information and reservations

T. + 39 055 0981881

T. Museum of the Innocents + 39 055 2037122