Bringing Monet to South Tyneside

Image: NG6395, Claude Monet, The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil, 1872, Oil on canvas, 52.6 x 71.8 cm © The National Gallery, London

---

South Shields Museum & Art Gallery has been selected as one of just four partners to host the National Gallery’s Masterpiece Tour, a three-year transformative opportunity to bring world-class art to the North East.

In early 2026, the museum will exhibit Monet’s masterpiece, The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil (1872), which has only left the National Gallery once in the past 20 years.

South Shields Museum & Art Gallery plans to use the loan of the Monet painting as a centrepiece for engagement with young people in South Tyneside affected by Emotion Based School Avoidance (EBSA). 

The painting will be displayed in its art gallery space, complemented by works from its own collection and artworks co-created by EBSA young people, teachers, and local organisations. The exhibition will focus on the power of art and nature, exploring themes of calm, retreat, and resilience.

EBSA - a growing issue nationally and locally - affects young people who struggle with attending school due to anxiety and complex emotions. 

Building on the museum’s recent pilot project around EBSA, which successfully used art as a medium for self-expression and understanding, the Masterpiece Tour will expand on this work and hopes to improve health and wellbeing in the community.

The partnership with the National Gallery and North East Museums, follows two previous successful partnerships: Constable Visits Jarrow in 2023 and National Treasures: Turner in Newcastle at the Laing Art Gallery in 2024.

Keith Merrin, Director of North East Museums, said:

“We’re thrilled to have been selected to show the Monet masterpiece. Hosting this artwork will not only act as inspiration for important engagement work with young people but it will offer a brilliant opportunity for people in our region to experience world-class art right here in South Tyneside. We are very proud of our ongoing partnership with the National Gallery and grateful for their support.”

Since its inception in 2014, the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour has reached 400,953 people across the UK. The National Touring programme, including the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour and other travelling exhibitions, has now reached 1,467,618 people since 2014.

As part of the National Gallery’s ongoing commitment to sharing their collection, this exhibition partnership offers four UK museums, galleries and art centres outside of London, the opportunity to work with the National Gallery for three years and display three major artworks from the collection.

As part of this edition of the Masterpiece Tour, partners will also each connect with a local community organisation to support the exhibition or public programme related to the selected painting each year.

Dr Gabriele Finaldi, Director of The National Gallery, said:

“The National Gallery’s collection belongs to all of us. It is part of our duty and our honour to look after these paintings and to bring them to where people are, not just expect them to come to us. Partnering on touring exhibitions does so much more than bring beloved paintings from the collection to other places in the UK - it supports the whole country's cultural ecosystem, connects people with paintings that belong to us all, and allows us to learn and expand our own practices and interpretations through the creativity of our partner organisations and their communities. That over one million people have visited these exhibitions in the last decade proves the desire to engage with our collection is growing, and we look forward to welcoming the next million visitors across the UK.”

Please contact: communications@northeastmuseums.org.uk