Southeast Asia’s largest ever show of French Impressionism, Into the Modern: Impressionism from the Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston features more than 100 works by 25 of the movement’s key artists. Taking place at the National Gallery Singapore, the exhibition is an opportunity to view world-class artworks from one of the most-loved artistic movements from 14 November 2025 to 1 March 2026.
Into the Modern: Impressionism From The Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston at National Gallery Singapore
The works on display at Into the Modern at National Gallery Singapore come from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which holds one of the largest collections of Impressionist art outside of France.
The exhibition paints a picture of the Impressionist movement against the backdrop of the rapidly changing world of the late 19th century. It frames the works with themes such as urban transformation and social change, themes that are still relevant today.
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Laid out across seven thematic sections, the Impressionism exhibition spans three galleries on the third floor of National Gallery Singapore. These take the visitors from the origins of the art movement to the early 20th century and the modern era.
Complementing the display of artworks are three “ARTeliers”, spaces that bridge the endeavours of the French Impressionists with the work of Southeast Asian artists and explore how Impressionist techniques were adapted in the region.
Seeking the Open Air
The first artwork to greet visitors inside the gallery is Claude Monet’s Meadow at Giverny. Painted in 1886, Meadow at Giverny has a bright tone palette and energetic brushwork, hallmarks of the Impressionists.
Contrast Meadow at Giverny with another of Monet’s works found on the adjacent wall, Woodgatherers at the Edge of the Forest (1863). Painted 20 years earlier, the earlier Monet work shares some compositional elements with Meadow at Giverny and reflects his admiration for the previous generation of landscape painters, such as Theodore Rousseau.
Woodgatherers at the Edge of the Forest depicts the forest of Fontainebleau and it was here, around the village of Barbizon, that landscape artists started to embrace outdoor painting.
In the Seeking Open Air section of the exhibition, there are works by mid-19th-century artists like Rousseau and Eugène Boudin, while archival photographs echo the forested landscapes that inspired the artists.
Plein Air Impressionism
The Plein Air Impressionism section builds on the work of the mid-19th-century artists and shows how painters like Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir made use of bright tones and feathery brushwork to put their stamp on what it meant to capture moments out in the open.
One significant work here is Edgar Degas’ At the Races in the Countryside. Painted in 1869, it was exhibited at the Impressionists’ first exhibition in 1874.
There were a total of eight Impressionist exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886. These were independently organised the Impressionist artists to break away from the traditional French art establishment’s Salon exhibitions.
At the Races in the Countryside is notable because of Degas’ modern approach to its composition and subject matter. It is a landscape but places the family of Degas’ friend Paul Valpicon in the foreground, with an intimate scene of a wet nurse feeding his son Henri.
Monet’s Meadow with Poplars (c. 1875) is also exhibited here, showing off his work at the Impressionism movement’s high point in the 1870s.
ARtelier 1: Impressionist Legacies – Plein Air Painting
The first of three ARTeliers features an animated film that outlines how Impressionist approaches and painting plein air arrived in Vietnam, then a French colony.
The film highlights the work of Vietnamese artist Tô Ngọc Vân and how art played a role during the Vietnamese Revolution of 1945 and the First Indochina War.
We think it is worth sitting for a while to learn about the connections and meanings that plein air painting took on in Southeast Asia.
Artelier II: A Study of Colours and Light
The next ARTelier is a chance for kids, or just about anybody, to experience plein air painting, indoors.
On display are art materials that belonged to Singaporean artist Georgette Chen. After taking inspiration from them, look out of the big glass windows towards the Padang and Marina Bay Sands and try to captures the colour and atmosphere of the scene with the materials provided.
Labour and Leisure on the Water
The next section of the Into the Modern exhibition in Singapore draws on water as a unifying motif for both work and play. The paintings here depict the scenes from the beaches to ports and waterways.
On display are touristic posters of Normandy’s coastal resorts from the late 19th century, complementing artworks showing leisurely seaside scenes by artists such as Eugene Boudin.
However, the 19th century was also a time of significant change to the French landscape, with ports, steamboats and railways making travel more accessible.
The Loing at Saint-Mames (1882) by Alfred Sisley captures the everyday activity along the river, southeast of Paris. A barge dominates nearby fishing boats. In the distance, the Paris-Lyons railroad viaduct cuts across the horizon line, hinting at the industrial expansion that was transforming the French landscape.
A common goal of the Impressionists was to depict modern life as they experienced it. One of the central figures of the movement was Camille Pissaro, who exhibited at all eight Impressionist exhibitions. He served both as a mentor and collaborator to other artists.
Three works from Pissarro’s experimental print series Woman Emptying a Wheelbarrow (1880) are on display. In them, you can see how he placed care and attention on the depiction of a humble, ordinary subject and experimented with different versions of the etchings to play with light and textures.
ARTelier III: Impressionist Legacies – The Artist-Printmaker
Learn more about how the working practices by Impressionists like Pissarro and Degas, who were experimental printmakers, can also be found in the work of artist Lim Yew Kuan, who was well known for his woodblock prints in the 1950s.
Modern Encounters
The mid-19th century was also a time of great change in Paris, and the Impressionists were there to capture it too.
Fleeting street scenes that provide a glimpse of the energy of the city. At the same time, there were shifts in social life with new entertainment venues, cafes and theatres that encouraged greater social interaction.
In Pierre-Aguste Renoir’s Dance at Bougival (1883), an amateur boatman in a straw hat dances the waltz with his stylish partner at one of the open-air cafes along the river Seine, west of Paris. The scene looks almost romantic. But, look closer and you will see that the floor is littered with cigarettes and burnt matches, hinting at the grimier side of the urban scene.
Reimagining the Commonplace
The penultimate section of the Into the Modern exhibition examines how the Impressionists also pushed the boundaries of still life painting. Everyday objects like flowers and fruit take on new light with loose and light brushstrokes by artists like Berthe Morisot and Henri Fantin-Latour.
Monet – Moment and Memory
The last section of the exhibition is dedicated to the works of Monet and features nine of his works.
Beautifully presented in a circular fashion, the paintings on display include Poppy Field in Hollow near Giverny (1885) and Grainstack (snow effect) (1891).
Pride of place goes to The Water Lily Pond (1900), probably his best-known series of works.
Before exiting the exhibition, you can watch a video showing Monet at work in his garden at Giverny. This not only provides a connection with the celebrated artist, but also shows how the Impressionist movement intersected with the age of the moving image and entered into the Modern age.
Exhibition Programmes
Complementing the Into the Modern exhibition in Singapore, there will also be programmes such as a Curatorial Roundtable on 15 November and a performance, Echoes of Light and Shadow: An Impressionist Journey with Silentrio on 6 December.
Watercolour workshops Seeking Open Air and Reimagining the Commonplace will be held in February 2026, while kids and families can join a drop-activity inspired by Impressionist artists, Stamping Memories in Colour, at the Keppel Centre for Art Education.
Into the Modern: Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Exhibition in Singapore
When: 14 November 2025 to 1 March 2026
Where: City Hall Wing, Level 3, Singtel Special Exhibition Galleries 1, 2 & 3
This is a ticketed exhibition.
Get more details about the exhibition.
