It has been 150 years since any of Monet’s paintings have been exhibited in China so an exhibition in Shanghai was always going to attract a lot of attention.

Anticipating the Golden Week crowds we booked our tickets in advance (fortunately) and arrived very early. Even so we had to queue. The exhibition was called Impression:Sunrise as that painting formed the focal point of the collection.

It was fascinating to see Charing Cross Bridge having lived on Charing Cross Road for so many years.

Monet was one of the founders of Impressionism and it was interesting to learn that it was the advent of paint in tubes which allowed artists to be able to move out of their studios, to travel and to really begin to capture light in their work. I hadn’t thought of the importance of tubes of paint in that way before! You learn something every day. Here is Impression: Sunrise which we queued up to inch slowly past. It is also the painting which gave the new movement its name.

It was wonderful to see so many locals pouring over the art work depicting French and English scenes but Monet and others of the period had been heavily influenced by Chinese and Japanese works with their space and simplicity. Apparently he even had a lot of Chinese styled furniture in his house.

Monet also had a large collection of Manga from the early 19th century. This surprised us as we thought it was a new concept. mind you it wasn’t like the cartoons that we know today!

It was a small exhibition but a real treat to see here. There was even a fun interactive room where you could immerse yourself in the paintings.

Afterwards we strolled along The Bund before going for lunch at a rooftop restaurant.

It wasn’t cheap but I have wanted to eat overlooking The Bund. So that’s another thing ticked off my bucket list.