The Sun: Source of Light in Art

25.02.2023 - 11.06.2023
The Sun: Source of Light in Art | © TMB

Claude Monet’s 1872 painting Impression, Sunrise, which gave Impressionism its name and now marks its 150th year, shows the red disk of the rising sun as the focus of the composition. The painting is the point of departure for the exhibition The Sun: Source of Light in Art, which explores the iconography of the sun from antiquity to the present. As a sign or personification of divine power, a protagonist in mythological narratives, an atmospheric element in landscape imagery, and an intensification of color in modern painting, the sun plays a key role in European art.