Intermediate French Students Get a Taste of Culture without Leaving the State

At the museum, students were able to see works by Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, and Claude Monet, including the first Monet painting to be brought to the United States. Many were surprised to learn that Shelburne Museum had so many original paintings by Claude Monet. One student commented, “I’m really glad you taught us about looking at the paintings up close and then backing away so that you can see the shapes and images slowly come into focus.”

On Friday, October 8, BFA’s intermediate French class took their learning about French impressionists beyond the classroom and visited Shelburne Museum. Here they saw the collection of impressionist art housed in the Electra Havermeyer Webb Memorial Building which is a reconstruction of the Webb family’s 1930’s New York city apartment. Before visiting, students spent the week learning about the French impressionist movement, Claude Monet’s controversial exposition of “Soleil levant” at the Salon in Paris in 1874, and some of the vocabulary to discuss the difference between a classical and impressionist work of art in French.

Many students hadn’t visited the museum since they were children and enjoyed visiting the rest of the grounds, riding the carousel, exploring the Ticonderoga, and soaking in the perfect fall weather and scenery. They capped off the field trip with lunch at the Skinny Pancake in Burlington and said that the crêpes were “délicieux”!