The Masterpieces of French Painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1800-1920, visits the MFA

You've seen the billboards, you've heard the buzz, and it's finally here, Houston. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will be loaning 135 nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French paintings to two cities in the world, and only one in the U.S. Yep. Houston. (the other being Berlin). We hit the art jackpot, er, the ArtPot?

Aptly named "The Masterpieces of French Painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1800-1920," this truly special exhibition will be on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (February 4-May 6, 2007) and Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie (May 30-October 7, 2007). Among The Met's artistic titans represented in the show, many by multiple canvases, are Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.

The masterworks will be lent to the Houston and Berlin institutions while The Met will embark upon an expansion of its second-floor galleries devoted to nineteenth-century European paintings. Some of the show's treasures have never left The Metropolitan since their acquisition and are unlikely to do so ever again, making the exhibition a unique opportunity for audiences outside of New York to see famous works from the museum's world-renowned collection. (Insert bragging rights here).

Highlights from the collection include:

Cézanne´s The Gulf of Marseilles Seen from L´Estaque (c. 1885)
Paul Gauguin´s mystical Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary) (1891)
Vincent van Gogh´s expressive Cypresses (1889).
Works by Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard (Nabis Movement)
Works by Henri Matisse, including Reclining Odalisque (1926)
A selection of Pablo Picasso´s paintings on the cusp of Cubism round out the exhibition

Admission to exhibit will require a timed-entry ticket that also includes general admission to the museum and an audio tour of the exhibition. Museum members will receive complimentary admissions according to their level of membership and will have a priority opportunity to make reservations before tickets are released to the general public.

For more information on the exhibit:
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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dates: Now through May 6; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 12:15-7 p.m. Sundays.

place: Audrey Jones Beck Building, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 5601 Main; 713-639-7300

tickets: Timed-entry tickets: $15 adults, $10 ages 6-18 and 65 and older Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; $18 adults, $11 ages 6-18 and 65 and older Saturdays-Sundays; $8 adults, $6.50 ages 6-18 and 65 ages Thursdays. Free for ages 5 and younger. VIP tickets, good for admission at any time, $25. Advance tickets available 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 11:30 a.m-5 p.m. Sundays; 713-639-7771 or www.mfah.org.