Questions about ticket sales? Visit our FAQ page.
OKCMOA members receive FREE admission to this exhibition. Not a member? Join today!
Featuring more than seventy works by French and European masters such as Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Renoir, Rousseau, and Van Gogh, this exhibition celebrates Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon’s extraordinary gift of nineteenth and early twentieth-century French art to the VMFA. After first becoming interested in British sporting art, Paul Mellon began to collect nineteenth-century French art in the 1940s with his second wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon. While their collection largely consists of Impressionist paintings, it also includes masterpieces from every important school of French art—from Romanticism and the Barbizon School through Cubism and the School of Paris. Taken together, these works exemplify the Mellons’ personal vision and highly original collecting strategies, which provide a context for understanding this unique collection.
The exhibition reproduces the invigorating experience of the Mellons’ collection, in which each work resonates with and gains greater strength from its lovingly created context. Van Gogh, Monet, Degas is presented in a series of sections including Cyphers of Modernity, Horses, Flowers, Views of Paris, People, Water, Interiors and Tables, The French Countryside, The Transformation of the Ordinary, and VMFA: Toward Impressionism. Opening with Cyphers of Modernity, visitors will be introduced to two of the collection’s most characteristic paintings: Berthe Morisot’s Young Woman Watering a Shrub and Théodore Géricault’s Mounted Jockey. These paintings are emblematic of the collection in their commitment to modernism, as well as their subject matter, which appealed to Mrs. Mellon’s love of gardening and Mr. Mellon’s passion for horses and horseracing.
Shop our exhibition-related products!
Shop our full selection of products at the Museum Store.
- 5 pm | Gallery access and reception with cocktails for Moderns
- 6:30 pm | Moderns-exclusive guided tour
- 10:30 am, 12:30 and 2:30 pm | Exhibition Highlights: Members may meet in the galleries for a 30-minute exhibition overview with Museum staff.
- 5 pm | Refreshments available in the Museum lobby
- 6 pm | The Mellon Collection, Edgar Degas & The Age of Photography by Dr. Michael Anderson, Director of Curatorial Affairs
Babies at the Museum (Ages 0-2 years)
July ǀ Clip & Clop
Friday, July 5
Saturday, July 6
Museum Playdate (Ages 2-4 years)
July ǀ Clip & Clop
Friday, July 12
Saturday, July 13
Gather your friends and head to OKCMOA for a late night museum experience like never before! Visit Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, enjoy drinks and music on the revamped rooftop lounge, and catch a film in the theater. Plus, visit during Love’s Third Thursday and save $3 on your visit to Van Gogh, Monet, Degas! Free for members, $12 for non-members.
Films
Public Exhibition Tours
Sunday, June 30 | 2 pm (Sold Out)
Wednesday, July 10 | 11 am (Sold Out)
Thursday, July 18 | 6 pm (Sold Out)
Sunday, July 21 | 2 pm (Sold Out)
Wednesday, August 7 | 11 am (Sold Out)
Thursday, August 15 | 6 pm(Sold Out)
Wednesday, August 28 | 11 am (Sold Out)
Saturday, September 7 | 2 pm (Sold Out)
Exhibition organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
This exhibition is made possible through support from the following generous donors:
Inasmuch Foundation
Kirsten and David Griffin
Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau
Virginia W. and James C. Meade
Oklahoma Humanities
Jennifer and James Weinland
Bank of Oklahoma
Edward Barth
Clements Foods Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. William R. Cook, II
Linda D. Garrett
The Payne Family
Image credit: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890). Daisies, Arles (detail), 1888. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: Travis Fullerton. © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts | Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917). At the Races: Before the Start (detail), ca. 1885-92. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: Katherine Wetzel. © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts |
