Monet and Degas masterpieces gifted to gallery

A pair of Impressionist masterpieces by "two of Europe's most famous artists" are to go on show after being gifted to a city gallery.

Claude Monet's The Epte in Giverny and Edgar Degas' Modiste Decorating a Hat were given to The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.

The gallery said the scheme allows people to pay inheritance tax by "transferring important cultural, scientific or historic objects and archives to the nation".

Fine Art curator Kate O'Donoghue said the works, which will go on display on 27 April, would "inspire visitors for many years to come".

"Claude Monet’s landscapes and Edgar Degas’ scenes of everyday life epitomise the impressionist movement," she said.

"It’s difficult to overstate quite how special it is to obtain these new works by two of Europe’s most famous artists."

The gallery said Monet's 1884 work presented "a vibrant, leafy scene in the village of Giverny in Normandy, France, where the artist painted his famous water lily series", while the 1891 work by Degas depicted "a milliner adjusting a hat in a shop window".

The works will be presented alongside Monet’s Break-up of the ice on the Seine, near Bennecourt, which is held in the gallery's collection, and Degas' Woman Ironing, which it currently has on loan.

Ms O’Donoghue said the works would "sit alongside works by artists such as Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse, helping us to tell the story of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in a way that will no doubt inspire visitors for many years to come".

A gallery representative said the new acquisitions had come from the collection of Mary Elliot-Blake, who died in 1996, and were owned by the Montagu family.

They said due to the family's connections to Liverpool, the works were allocated to the Walker under the scheme.

They added that National Museums Liverpool was "extremely grateful to the Montagu family for supporting the acquisition, to the Rick Mather David Scrase Foundation for generously funding the conservation of the works, and to Christie’s for their assistance with negotiations".

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