The city whose team wins the World Series is also due a visiting Monet. The Milwaukee Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg have agreed to lend a painting to the museum backing the winning team.
Under the agreement announced October 23, a Brewers championship would bring St. Petersburg’s Houses of Parliament: Effect of Fog, London to Milwaukee. A Rays victory would send Milwaukee’s Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect to Florida. Each museum will retain ownership; the wager commits a temporary loan. Exhibition dates will be announced after the series.
Both paintings belong to Monet’s views of the River Thames. WUSF’s coverage explains their shared interest in shifting light, fog and weather. A loan would let visitors see two approaches to London’s atmosphere in the same museum.
Milwaukee’s collection record dates Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect to about 1900, with a 1903 date on the painting. It is an oil on canvas, roughly 29 by 39 inches, acquired through the bequest of Mrs. Albert T. Friedmann. The museum describes it as one of Monet’s repeated studies of a single motif under changing conditions.
Where the paintings are now
Milwaukee lists its painting on view in gallery S203. In St. Petersburg, the museum’s announcement says the 1904 Houses of Parliament is on display in the upstairs gallery during the World Series. The Collection Gallery, its usual home, is closed until November 21 for the reinstallation of Art Unbound.
Visitors can see each museum’s own Monet during the rivalry. The visiting painting’s arrival remains a separate announcement after the championship is decided.
