Demand for tickets for an exhibition of Impressionist paintings due to open in the National Gallery of Ireland next January far exceeded expectations on their first day of sale. Available on a timed admission basis, the tickets are for Monet, Renoir and the Impressionist Landscape, which will travel from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts to Dublin, its only venue in Europe. As a result, the gallery is anticipating higher than average numbers and has introduced a scheme offering specific date and time slots to visitors. This booking system is common to European and American museums hosting popular exhibitions but has not been used here before. Admission prices vary from £7.85 for an adult to £18.10 for a family group ticket; a variety of concessions are also available. While the gallery was unable to give any details of numbers yesterday, a spokeswoman said over 50 per cent of all bookings had been made over the Internet. Featuring 69 works by such artists as CΘzanne, Renoir, Pissarro, Monet, Gauguin and van Gogh, the exhibition is predicted to attract some 100,000 visitors during its 12-week run in Dublin. Drawn from the Boston Institute's outstanding collection of French art, the show will examine the place of landscape in impressionism from the movement's origins in the Barbizon school up to late 19th century post-Impressionism. No less than 13 pictures by Claude Monet will feature, including such iconic images as his Grainstack, and Camille Monet and A child in the artist's garden at Argenteuil.
The exhibition's opening will coincide with the debut of the gallery's new £20 million Millennium Wing on Clare Street and will be the first of a series of shows at this venue during 2002.