“Claude Monet: The Immersive Experience” is on view in Richmond through Jan. 18, 2026. (Photo courtesy Exhibition Hub/Fever)
On the day of the artist Claude Monet’s funeral near his idyllic home in Giverny, France, a black drape covered his coffin. His longtime friend, French statesman Georges Clemenceau, in a demonstration of his grief and regard, yanked the material from the casket. He then ran to the house’s kitchen, where he ripped down a yellow curtain, and as he spread it over the funerary box, Clemenceau exclaimed, “No black for Monet! Black is not a color!”
This moment is a powerful illustration of what Monet meant to those who knew him well and the nature of his work. John Zaller, executive producer of “Claude Monet: The Immersive Experience,” on view in Richmond through Jan. 18, 2026, observes that Monet also created one of the first “immersive experiences.”
“If you go to the [Musée de] l’Orangerie in Paris,” he describes, “you are surrounded by his ‘Water Lilies,’ and you are basically standing in Monet’s garden. It’s definitely one of those experiences, but now we use technology to even more take people out of the everyday and into his life and work."
The two oval rooms on the second floor of L’Orangerie feature eight Monet pieces in a 360-degree arrangement. The artist offered the paintings to the French state in 1918 to commemorate the peace following the cataclysm of the 1914-1918 Great War. Monet said of “Water Lilies” that they present an “illusion of an endless whole, of a wave with no horizon and no shore.” Once they were completed, however, Monet — then experiencing severe eye difficulties due to cataracts — wanted to withdraw the paintings from consideration. Clemenceau persuaded him otherwise.
Artist André Masson in 1952 declared these spaces as “The Sistine Chapel of Impressionism.” But Monet’s great, final works did not always receive such high praise or care.
If one can visit the real thing, and spend time with the work, there is a pervasive sense of reverence, calm and reflection without music or high-tech shifting projections. But for those who can’t get to Paris, in Henrico County off Broad Street, in a former Lidl store, is an entertaining introduction to the breadth of Monet’s legacy. “Claude Monet: The Immersive Experience” is at the Exhibition Hub Art Center Richmond at 12151 W. Broad St.
This is the same site of a yearlong Van Gogh immersive show, which, Zaller says, received 100,000 visitors. As with that presentation, the space is suitable for holidays, educational opportunities and private events. He is hopeful about the room replicating Giverny’s curved Japanese bridge amid Monet’s gardens. After walking through the imitation grass and then upon the garlanded span, one can look down and see simulated koi gliding and dragonflies dancing around. “It’s a romantic space,” Zaller says. “I expect there’ll be a few marriage proposals.” It’s comparable to the real-life experience in Maymont’s Japanese Garden, minus the Monet.
Photo courtesy Exhibition Hub/Fever
A difference between the previous Van Gogh installation and the new Monet experience is the employment of advanced technological tools; a three-part documentary film at the beginning brings life to young Monet’s sharp and funny caricatures of friends and teachers, which yielded his first art sales. Then there is a re-creation of the gallery opening on April 15, 1874, which introduced the world to a group of artists including Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley and Cézanne, a collective who challenged the prevailing attitudes of French art at the time.
Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” (“Impression, soleil levant”) caused influential critic Louis Leroy, who wrote for a satirical illustrated publication, to dub this approach to art making as “impressionism.” He intended no compliment. The name stuck, and Leroy’s sarcastic attempt to dismiss the movement failed. He wasn’t the only reviewer who downplayed the paintings.
In the exhibition film, an animated Monet and friends gather and converse, gallerygoers look out toward the viewers in puzzlement, and it’s an enjoyable way of making the point that impressionism didn’t register as an immediate hit even with the gallery-going public.
Monet’s atelier in Giverny is re-created in the exhibition. (Photo by Harry Kollatz Jr.)
One room represents Monet’s Giverny residence with many of the familiar pieces on the walls. It’s immersive enough that a participant can half-expect a version of Monet to walk in and chat. “This was the place, after he’d come back from his voyages,” Zaller explains, “where he did have all those works all around him, gathered like old friends. He’d share them with colleagues and friends in this special room. Instead of seeing the set from behind a stanchion and acrylic — you never know, Monet might show up.”
The exhibition gives extensive attention to Monet’s approach to color and light. This reinforces his effort through several series of particular places in all conditions, including the Rouen Cathedral and London’s Parliament building. He captured these scenes through time and seasons. They are records of the transformations within the qualities of light, color and the shape of shadows.
In the big, immersive room where one sits in European-style beach chairs to allow the animations, light and music to wash over the viewer, the trains of Saint-Lazare chuff back and forth spewing steam and magnificent views of Venice pass along as though accompanying Monet along the Grand Canal, then at a Paris park a storm approaches in the distance; picnickers don’t seem to notice when forks of lightning shoot down and the rains come — they don’t protect their heads and make a run for cover.
When it comes to determining how to showcase the art as is, but also adding animations such as moving people and weather, the exhibition designers and artists remained faithful to the source material. “The guidelines we present ourselves are that these are iconic artists,” Zaller says. “We want to present the work in an authentic way but bring in these other elements that would’ve affected them.” After all, Monet painted from life and often outdoors. Zaller continues, “We didn’t want, for example, the picnicking couple to stand up and move out of the scene.” Natural elements inform the sensory experience; crickets and frogs are heard in Giverny, there are animated tumbling autumn leaves and winter’s snows and winds.
Music is also a dynamic part of the presentation.The exhibit’s score is by Belgian composer Thomas Sohet. Inspired by compositions of Monet’s time and using a 37-piece orchestra, this adds another vital layer to the installation. “It has the fidelity and depth of sound of an orchestra in a big room and elevates the experience,” Zaller says. “It also allows for transitions and keeps things moving.”
Toward the end of the show, for $5, showgoers can put on virtual reality goggles and take a boat tour. Monet is painting on an easel in a craft ahead of the virtual participant, sometimes looking toward the viewer, and a dog is at their feet. The boat moves magically along the river whose scenery is Monet’s paintings, and the people in them wave. The journey disembarks at Giverny and transitions to a walk into his house. The dog lays down before the virtual visitor enters the rooms.
Exiting through the gift shop, participants can sit with crayons and create their own masterpieces, or, for $15, get a computer-generated portrait of themselves done in the Monet style. Pro tip: Remove glasses and hats.
November marked Monet’s 185th birthday, so it’s a celebratory time to get closer to the artist.
“Claude Monet: The Immersive Experience” is on view through Jan. 18, 2026. The event runs 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday-Monday except for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Tickets start at $29 for adults and $18 for children.
